INFECTIOUS DISEASES OF CATTLE. 403 



lin solution. Where the teats and udder are affected the application 

 of carbolized vaseline, camphor ointment, or borated glycerin has 

 given excellent results. If the symptoms of heart weakness are 

 manifest, give digitalis, camphor, or alcohol, while excessive fever 

 may be reduced with phenacetin. 



The complications that may follow the disease are usually the result 

 of contaminating bacteria, and it is therefore desirable to have the 

 animals and their surroundings kept in as cleanly a condition as pos- 

 sible. The cattle should be fed on soft meal or grain and given a 

 plentiful supply of clean water. 



SEPTICEMIA AND PYEMIA. 



These two names are applied to diseased conditions which are so 

 nearly alike in their symptoms that it is sometimes difficult to distin- 

 guish the one from the other. Indeed, the name pyosepticemia, or 

 septicopyemia, is often applied where it is impossible to make a dis- 

 tinction between septicemia and pyemia or where each is equally 

 responsible for the diseased condition. The name septicemia is 

 derived from two Greek words meaning " poison " and " blood," and 

 signifies that the germ lives in the blood, hence the use of the term 

 " blood poisoning " for this disease. Pyemia Is likewise derived from 

 two Greek words, meaning " pus " and " blood," and is that form of 

 septicemia caused by pus-producing organisms and characterized by 

 secondary abscesses. 



Causes. — Neither of these diseases is brought about, strictly speak- 

 ing, by any specific organism, hence neither can be looked upon as a 

 specific disease. The organisms most frequently found in cases of 

 septicemia are, on the whole, the same as those of pyemia, and may 

 be either pus cocci, the bacillus coli, or other pus-producing organ- 

 isms. These organisms are often found as secondary invaders in 

 other diseases, such as advanced cases of tuberculosis, in which cases 

 they are responsible for the formation of pus. 



Aside from the causative organism, or, in other words, the active 

 cause, there are many secondary causes. The most important of these 

 in pyemia is a break in continuity of the protective covering, as 

 a wound, which affords an entrance into the tissues for the organisms. 

 Among the different varieties of wounds may be mentioned cuts, 

 bruises, punctures, burns, chemical or frozen wounds, and compound 

 fractures of bones. Injuries received during parturition, stoppage 

 of the milk ducts, and infection of the umbilicus in the newly born 

 are also frequent causes of pyemia. Septicemia usually follows sur- 

 gical wounds, local suppuration, enteritis, bronchitis — in fact, wher- 

 ever there is a local lesion of any kind permitting germs to enter the 

 blood. Septicemia was formerly applied to designate the condition 



