DISEASES FOLLOWING P-\BTUEITION. 241 



been kept up for an hour or two, the bag may be dried, well nibbed 

 with soap, and left thus with a soapy coating. If the pain is great, 

 extract of belladonna may be applied along with the soap, and a dry 

 suspensory bandage with holes for the teats may be applied. Strong 

 mercurial ointment is very useful in relieving pain and softening the 

 bag. This is especially valuable when the disease is protracted and 

 induration threatens. It may be mixed with an equal amount of 

 soap and half the amount of extract of belladonna. In cases of threat- 

 ened induration excellent results are sometimes obtained from a 

 weak induction current of electricity sent through the gland daily for 

 10 minutes. 



If abscess threatens, it may be favored by fomentation and opened 

 as soon as fluctuation from finger to finger shows the fomiation of 

 matter at a point formerly hard. The wound may bleed freely, and 

 there is a risk of opening a milk duct, yet relief will be secured; and 

 a dressing twice daily with a lotion of carbolic acid 1 part, water 20 

 parts, and glycerin 1 part will suffice to keep the wound cle<in and 

 healthy. 



Gangrene of the affected part is often fatal. It demands antisep- 

 tics (chlorid of zinc, 1 dram to 1 quart water) applied frequently to 

 the part, or, if the case can not be attended, smear the affected quar- 

 ter with melted Venice turpentine, or even wood tar. Antiseptic 

 tonics (tincture of muriate of iron, 4 drams) may also be given four 

 times daily in a quart of water. 



CONTAGIOUS MAMMITIS (CONTAGIOUS INFLAMMATION OF THE UDDEr). 



As stated in the last article, that form of inflammation of the udder 

 which attacks the gland ducts and follicles, causing deep-seated, hard, 

 nodular swellings, is often contagious. Franck has demonstrated 

 this by injecting into the milk ducts in different cows (milking and 

 dry) the pus from the bags of cows affected with mammitis, or the 

 liquids of putrid flesh, or putrid blood, and in every case he produced 

 acute inflammation of the gland tissue within twenty-four hours. 

 He thinks that in ordinary conditions the septic germ gains access by 

 propagating itself through the milk, filling the milk canal and oozing 

 from the external orifice. He points to this as a reason why dry cows 

 escape the malady, though mingling fi-eely with the sufferers, and 

 why such dry cows do not suffer from inflammation of the gland tissue 

 when attacked with foot-and-mouth disease. In this last case it is 

 e\'ident that it is not simply the inoculation with the milker's hand 

 that is lacking, for the skin of the bag is attacked, but not its secret- 

 ing glandular parts. Now that in any case of abscess we look for the 

 cause in the chain forms of globular bacteria {Streptocoecus py- 

 ogenes), in the cluster form of white globular bacteria {Staphylococ- 

 16923°— 12 16 



