DISEASES OF COWS. 437 



of water, and carbolic acid should be kept exposed abund- 

 antly in the stable by spraying it on the floor. Each 

 cow should receive the hyposulphite of soda, given daily 

 in the food for two or tliree weeks, and the disinfecting 

 process should not be discontinued during this interval. 

 Medicine may be available if given in the first staoes 

 of the disease. When the condition of the animal is de- 

 pressed tonics are called for. The ordinary tonic mixture 

 of sulphate of iron, gentian and ginger in equal quantities, 

 one dram of each for one dose, has been given with benefit. 

 Tincture of Peruvian bark, made by infusing four ounces 

 of the bark in a quart of whiskey, is also useful, given in 

 four-ounce doses three times daily. Antiseptics are use- 

 ful in the first stage of the infectious form of the disease. 

 One-haif-ounce doses of chlorate of potassa, or one-ounce 

 doses of hyposulphite of soda, given daily until the 

 symptoms disappear, have been given with benefit; as 

 have four-dram doses of asafcetida, given twice daily for 

 three days. A pint of infusion of black haw {viburnum 

 prunifolium), or an equivalent of the tincture, has been 

 found exceedingly effective in arresting the disease when 

 in its early stages, and when given on the first premoni- 

 tion of the disorder. This infusion was in common 

 use on Southern plantations in time of slavery, when 

 the negroes had used cotton root for procuring abortion, 

 and was found most eff active in averting the effects of the 

 root. This fact has a double significance in this regard. 

 Epizootic abortion has been known from the earliest 

 times. . An old work upon Animal Plagues, printed 200 

 years ago, describes several outbreaks of this disease 

 which occurred previous to a. d. 800. A very destructive 

 outbreak happened in Germany in 1777 among cows and 

 pigs ; another in France seven years later affected most 

 of the cows and mures. Medical works mention a great 

 many instances of a similar kind, but without specifying 

 any particular cause beyond the supposed influence of 



