DISEASES FOLLOWING PAETUEITION. 246 



miinicable to a person who visits the patient in his room but avoids 

 touching him, while cowpox is never thus transferred through the air 

 unless deliberately diffused in the form of spray. The demonstration 

 of a protozoan germ in smallpox implies a similar microbe in cowpox. 



The disease in the cow is ushered in by a slight fever, which, how- 

 ever, is usually overlooked, and the first sign is tenderness of the 

 teats. Examined, these may be redder and hotter than normal, and 

 at the end of two days there appear little nodules, like small peas, of 

 a pale-red color, and increasing so that they may measure three- 

 fourths of an inch to 1 inch in diameter by the seventh day. The 

 yield of milk diminishes, and when heated it coagulates slightW. 

 From the seventh to the tenth day the eruption forms into a blister 

 with a depression in the center and raised margins, and from which 

 the Avhole of the liquid can not be drawn out by a single puncture. 

 The blister, in other Avords, is chambered, and each chamber must be 

 opened to evacuate the whole of the contents. If the pock forms on 

 a surface where there is thick hair, it does not rise as a blistei, but 

 oozes out a straw-colored fluid which concretes on the hairs in an 

 amber-colored mass. In one or two days after the pock is full it 

 becomes yellow from contained pus, and then dries into a brownish- 

 yellow scab, which finally falls, leaving one or more distinct pits in 

 the skin. Upon the teats, however, this regular course is rarely seen ; 

 the vesicles are burst by the hands of the milker as soon as liquid is 

 formed, and as they continue to suffer at each milking they form 

 raw, angry sores, scabbing more or less at intervals, but slow to 

 undergo healing. 



The only treatment required is to heal the sores; and as milking is 

 the main cause of their persistence, that must be done as gently as 

 possible, or even with the teat tube or dilator. (PI. XXIV. figs. 3 

 and 4.) It is essential to check the propagation of the germ, and for 

 this purpose the sore teats may be washed frequently with a solution 

 of half an ounce hyposulphite of soda in a pint of water. This will 

 usually check the inflammation and cut short the malady. 



SUPPRESSION OF MILK. 



The absence of milk in the udder may result from ill health, 

 debility, emaciation, chronic disease of the bag, wasting of the gland 

 from previous disease, or insufficient food, but sometimes it will occur 

 suddenly without any appreciable cause. The treatment will consist 

 in removing the cause of the disease, feeding well on rich albuminoid 

 food made into warm mashes, and giving ounce doses of aromatic 

 carminatives, like anise seed, fennel seed, etc. Rubbing and strip- 

 ping the udder are useful ; and the application of oil of lavender or 

 of turpentine, or even a blister of Spanish flies, will sometimes 

 succeed. 



