THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 180 



relative to the constitutional temperament of the domestic ox 

 may not be out of place ; it is indeed a point that demands 

 our notice. 



Comparing the ox with the horse, neither the nervous nor 

 the arterial system of the former exhibits the same energy as 

 that of the latter. The brain of the ox is small ; the nervous 

 energies are soon exhausted, nor are they so easily recruited 

 by rest, as in the horse : the ox will not endure severe labour, 

 especially if hurried, and will frequently sink down with 

 exhaustion ; in illness it is sooner prostrated than the horse, 

 and more subject to paralytic weakness. The chest, moreover, 

 has less volume, and the free play of the lungs is more fre- 

 quently oppressed by the distension of the stomach, which, 

 with the abdominal viscera, occupy more room in proportion, 

 as being of comparatively predominant importance. The ox, 

 indeed, is expressly formed for giving milk and flesh as the 

 food of man ; and though this animal has been employed in 

 labour from the earliest times, it was for slow labour, with 

 frequent intervals of rest. 



The pulse of the ox is quicker than that of the horse, 

 ranging from fifty to sixty, in a state of health ; in the horse 

 it is under forty. In cattle, near the time of calving, the 

 pulse often rises to eighty or eighty-five, and in milch cows is 

 always quicker than in oxen. The arteries generally, those 

 arising from the heart immediately being excepted, are com- 

 paratively much smaller than in the horse ; while, on the 

 contrary, the veins are far larger, and indeed the whole 

 venous system is more developed, and especially so in good 

 milch cows, in which the subcutaneous abdominal vein (or 

 milk vein), is taken as a criterion of their qualities. 



It is not always an easy thing to feel the arterial pulse in 

 cattle: this may, however, be generally effected at one of the 

 following arteries : The submaxillary, a branch of the carotid 

 which dips under the angle of the lower jaw; the temporal 

 artery running up between the eye and ear; or the anterior 

 auricular artery, which supplies the anterior muscles of the 

 ear. The pulsation of the heart itself may be tried by placing 

 the hand on the left side of the chest, a little within and 

 behind the elbow. The warmth or unnatural coldness of the 

 ears, and the heat of the blood at the roots of the horns, are 

 points to be attended to in conjunction with the pulse. 



When blood is abstracted from cattle, the external jugular 

 vein is that commonly selected for the lancet; it is very 



