688 PATHOLOGY OF rARTURITION. 



Faulty hygiene has been looked upon as aiding in the development of 

 mammitis ; filthy and badly ventilated dwellings being greatly blamed 

 as tending to generate a miasma, which exerts a special influence on the 

 udder. 



Plethora has been imagined to be, if not an exciting, at least a pre- 

 disposing cause, and so has hot weather. Bardy gives a description of 

 an epizooty of mammitis which was said to be due to the Cows con- 

 suming ranunculaceous plants, which were very abundant in the fields 

 where the animals grazed. The people in the locality assured him 

 that this always occurred when these plants were most plentiful in 

 certain years. 



Mammitis sometimes complicates or accompanies vaginitis, metritis, 

 peritonitis, etc., according to some authorities. 



There is much reason to believe that a particular form of mammitis 

 is due to a putrid or septic infection, and Franck is one of the strongest 

 supporters of this view. Indeed, he asserts that the majority of cases 

 of mammitis are of septic origin ; and he has experimentally proved the 

 correctness of his statement. For instance, he has repeatedly injected 

 into the teats of healthy Cows, pus from the udder of those affected 

 with mammitis, or fluid from putrid flesh, as well as putrid blood, and 

 within twenty-four hours an acute inflammation of the corresponding 

 quarters has been observed. This inflammation occurred in Cows whose 

 udder was in active function, as well as those which were " dry." The 

 uninjured epithelium of the milk sinuses and vesicles is, therefore, not 

 protective of the gland like the pavement epithelium of the vagina ; for 

 it has been shown that when putrid flesh or blood-fluid was injected 

 into the uninjured vagina of Ewes and Cows, no inflammation was 

 set up.i 



' One of Franck's experiments is instructive. A Cow which gave only a small quantity 

 of milk, had, on February 26, 1875, a quantity of fresh pus from the" udder of another 

 Cow suffering from mammitis, and diluted with ten times its bulk of water, injected 

 into the te*t of the left anterior quarter. Next day this quarter had all the appearance 

 of being affected with parenchymatous inflammation. The other three quarters were 

 generally intact. The secretion from the diseased quarter was yellow, creamy, and pus- 

 like. It only contained pus-globules in great quantity, and these weie studded with 

 micrococci ; there were also some epithelial cells, milk globules and small masses of 

 coagulated casein. On February 28, the inflammation had extended to the left posterior 

 quarter. 



In another experiment he injected some putrid flesh-fluid into the milk-duct of a teat. 

 Next day this quarter of the udder was affected with acute parenchymatous inflamma- 

 tion ; the milk was curdled, purulent, and contained large numbers of pu3 corpuscles and 

 micrococci. In a few days the adjoining quarter was likewise involved. 



In the veterinary journal of the University of Pisa {Giornale di Anatomia, etc., degli 

 Anbnali, 1875), Professor Rivolta describes a form of mammitis prevailing among Sheep 

 in the neighbourhood of Pisa, towards the end of winter and commencement of spring, 

 and to which he has prefixed the designation of " septic." He gives it this designation 

 because, when it begins at a certain part of the mammary gland, there is noted a kind 

 of putrefaction of the juices of the skin, as well as of the gland itself ; and besides, in 

 the sero-sanguinolent fluid in the connective tissue of the gland are remarked a very 

 active element in the process of putrefaction, in the presence of micrococci and bacteria. 



The disease appears to be perfectly distinct from the gangrenous mammitis, and the 

 gangrenous or anthracoid erysipelas, described by various writers. It is a local malady 

 which usually invades the gland, extending at a certain rate of progress, and most 

 frequently proving fatal. It ordinarily commences in the neighbourhood of, or in one of 

 the teats ; if the latter, it offers a circumscribed ojderaatous tumefaction, while the 

 surface of the skin thereon is intensely red. This red patch rapidly assumes a grey 

 colour, and finally becomes almost black. Sometimes blood escapes from the affected 

 teat. This oedematous swelling and discoloration gradually extend, and in a more or 

 less brief period of time have invaded one-third or one-half of the udder — not even sparing 

 the tissue of the gland. The whole of the affected part is then tumefied, doughy, some- 



