692 PATHOLOGY OF PARTURITION. 



teat, and pressed through. A coagulum or concretion as large as a 

 nut has been extracted in this manner. When it is too voluminous, 

 however, it may be necessary to introduce a sound carefully into the 

 canal, in order to break it up ; or it may even be required to incise the 

 teat, when the mass is too large and dense to be got rid of in this 

 way. 



Eetention of the milk is sometimes due to atresia or obliteration of 

 the milk canal in the teat, and will then demand an operation which 

 will be referred to presently. 



When phlegmonous or parenchymatous mamraitis is present, the 

 treatment must be energetic and adopted early, in order to prevent 

 those serious alterations in the gland which take place so rapidly. 



In the Cow, bleeding from the corresponding mammary vein has 

 been recommended by many excellent authorities, from the speedy 

 relief it gives to the congested gland ; in the Mare, if bleeding is neces- 

 sary, the blood must be abstracted from the jugular, though this can 

 rarely be productive of much benefit. Leeches may be most usefully 

 employed, locally, for the smaller animals, and Bouley has even had 

 recourse to them with great advantage in the Cow. 



In inflammation of the gland, emptying it of its secretion, or removing 

 from it the products of the inflammation, must be scrupulously observed. 

 Milking by hand must be persisted in for brief but frequent periods, 

 even though only a few drops of serum be withdi'awn each time. The 

 teat-syphon may sometimes be usefully introduced ; but its employment 

 requires much circumspection when the inflammation is acute. With 

 the smaller animals, as the Bitch, milking is not so urgent. 



The general treatment must depend upon the condition of the animal 

 and the nature and degree of the disturbance, and must be, in principle, 

 that of all inflammation. The local treatment is a matter of much 

 importance, and here we find the most diverse recommendations. 



Zundel, Baumeister and Euefi', Gillibert, and others, have lauded the 

 advantages to be obtained from the application of collodion, particularly 

 with small animals. With the larger animals, as Mares and Heifers, it 

 has been most successfully employed by Zundel, who adds a few drops 

 of castor-oil to the collodion, which is applied either over the whole 

 gland or the inflamed quarter or quartei's, commencing at the teat, the 

 orifice of which must not be covered ; a second or a third application 

 may be made. The evaporation of the ether produces a salutary degree 

 of cold, while the continuous layer of cotton, closely adhering to the 

 surface of the skin, affords equable compression and support by its con- 

 traction when the ether evaporates. 



Astringent and refrigerant applications have always held a high place 

 in the treatment of mammitis, and every authority has his own favourite 

 application. In this way we have cold water, either alone or with the 

 addition of ice, acetate of lead, or Goulard's extract ; clay tempered 

 with vinegar or salt water ; evaporating lotions of various kinds, etc. 

 These applications may be usefully and safely employed when there is 

 merely congestion, or at the commencement of slight inflammation; 

 but when the inflammation has become fairly established, and there is 

 exudation, they increase the tension, and, without allaying the pain, 

 promote induration. So that, as a rule, they are to be avoided until 

 the inflammation has been greatly subdued, when they may be resorted 

 to with some advantage. 



Emollient applications, and especially when warm, afford more 



