DISEASES OF YOUNG CALVES. 277 



ular and white blood-cells like the colostrum, and often disagrees with 

 the young animal living on it. Now, while these various modifications 

 in the amount of solid matters may prove harmless to a strong and 

 vigorous calf, they can easily be the occasion of intestinal disorder in 

 a weaker one, or in one with health already somewhat impaired by sick- 

 ness, exposure, or unwholesome buildings. The casein of the cow's 

 milk coagulates in one solid mass, and is much less easily penetrated 

 by the digesting fluids than the fine flaky coagula of woman's or mare's 

 milk. An excess of casein, therefore, thrown on an already overtaxed 

 stomach can all the more readily induce disorder. So with butter fat. 

 While a most important element in nutrition, it may be present in the 

 stomach in such amount as to interfere with the action of the gastric 

 juice on the casein, and with the interruption of the natural stomach 

 digestion the fats themselves undergo decomposition with the produc- 

 tion of offensive and irritating fatty acids. 



The milk of the very young cow is usually more watery than that of 

 the mature animal, and that of the old cow has a greater liability to 

 become acid. It varies much with the breed, the Channel Island cattle 

 being notorious for the relatively large amount of cream, while the Hoi- 

 steins, Ayrshires, and Shorthorns are remarkable rather for the amount 

 of casein. The milk of cows fed on potatoes and grass is very poor 

 and watery; that from cows fed on cabbage or Swedish turnips has a 

 disagreeable taste and odor (from the former an offensive liquid has 

 been distilled). 



Cows fed on overkept, fermented, and soured rations have acid milk 

 which readily turns and coagulates. Thus old, long-kept brewers' grains, 

 swill, the refuse of glucose factories, and ensilage which has been put up 

 too green, all act in this way. The same may come from disease in the 

 cow's udder, or any general disease of the cow with attendant fever, 

 and in all such cases the tendency is to rapid change and unwholesome- 

 ness. If the milk is drawn and fed from a pail there is the added dan- 

 ger of all sorts of poisonous ferments getting into it and multiplying; 

 it may be from the imperfect cleansing and scalding of the pail; from 

 rinsing the pails with water that is impure; from the entrance of bac- 

 terial ferments floating in the filthy atmosphere of the stable, or from 

 the entrance of the volatile chemical products of fermentation. 



In addition to the dangers coining through the milk, the calf suffers 

 in its digestive powers from any temporary illness, and among others 

 from the excitement attendant on the cutting of teeth, and impaired 

 digestion means fermentations in the undigested masses and the exces- 

 sive production of poisonous ptomaines and toxins. 



Whatever may be the starting or predisposing cause of this malady, 

 when once established it in liable to perpetuate itself by contagion and 

 to prove a veritable plague in a herd or a district. 



The Kt/tnptomx of diarrhea may appear so promptly after birth as to 

 lead to the idea that the cause already existed in Hie body of the csilf, 



