i42 CATTLE. 



tear the skin and flesh horribly. This is a disease, primarily, of the 

 stomach, affecting the brain and the head generally. The remedy 

 must be applied promptly, and, as in all inflammations, copious bleed- 

 ing must be resorted to ; and then should follow active medicine. 

 The treatment prescribed for this disease at pages 31-3, 314^ 315, 

 316 and 3 17, must be followed. The main reliance will be a thorough 

 ■washing of the manifolds with water, administered by the stomach- 

 pump. 



Homoeopathic treatmevt. — This will consist of, first, aconitum, and 

 then belladonna, to be followed by veratrum album. These are to 

 be given to abate the secondary efi'ects of the disease. As to the 

 cause, it can only be removed as prescribed at page 313 and the 

 following ones ; and the means are mainly mechanical. Sulphur 

 and mercurius vivus may be given if there be costiveness ; nux 

 vomica if the faeces be hard ; opium and argilla when nothing passes ; 

 and plumbum where the constipation is very obstinate. 



LICE. 



Connected with mange, the usual accompaniment, and probably 

 the occasional cause of it, is the appearance of vermin on the skin. 

 It cannot be supposed that they are originally produced by any dis- 

 ease or state of the skin; but the ova (eggs) of these animalculae, 

 floatino* in the atmosphere, find in the skin of cattle, under certain 

 circumstances, and under those alone, a proper nidus, or place where 

 they may be hatched into life. A beast in good health and condi- 

 tioil will not have one of those insects upon him unless he mixes 

 with lousy cattle ; but if he be turned out in the straw-yard in winter, 

 and is half-starved there, and his coat becomes rough, and matted, 

 and foul, they will soon swarm upon him. By the constant irrita- 

 tion which they excite, they will predispose the skin to an attack of 

 mange from other causes, if they do not actually produce it. 



He who had not personal observation of the fact, would hardly 

 beheve how numerous they soon become. There are myriads of 

 them on the hide of the ill-fated beast. They keep him in a con- 

 stant state of torment, and are, in a manner, devouring him before 

 his time. It cannot be surprising that they rapidly spread from one 

 animal to another. The slightest contact, the lying on the same 

 lair, or the feeding on the same pasture, is sufficient to enable thera 

 to be communicated from the infected beast to all the rest. The 

 animalcule thrives everywhere, although the ovum did not find a 

 proper nidus on the skin of the healthy beast ; and the vermin, once 

 established there, soon change the character of the skin, and cover 

 it with scurf and mange. 



Various p )wder9 and lotions have been recommended for the de- 

 stnictioD of these parasites. A powder can scarcely be brought 



