190 THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 



apparent, running along the side of the throat from the 

 angle of the lower jaw. A skilful operator will use a strong 

 broad-shouldered lancet, but the farmer contents himself 

 with the fleam, which in his hands is more certain and safe ; 

 but, whether the lancet or the fleam be employed, the neck 

 should not be strapped or corded round, as the pressure, 

 being alike on both sides of the neck, impedes the return of 

 the blood from the head ; firm pressure of the fingers a little 

 below the spot where the puncture of the vein is to be made, 

 will suffice to render it pi*ominent. Occasionally, in affections 

 of the mouth or nasal organs, a flow of blood is obtained 

 from the vessels of the palate by free incisions on the latter ; 

 and sometimes certain veins of the limbs (the cephalic of the 

 fore limb, the saphena of the hind limb) are selected. In 

 inflammatory diseases prompt and efficient bleeding is indis- 

 pensable ; and this should be carried so far at once as to 

 affect the circulation, and thereby, if possible, arrest the 

 coarse of the disease. Timid bleeding, rendering its repeti- 

 tion needful, is to be eschewed ; but at the same time atten- 

 tion should be paid to the age, constitution, and vigour of the 

 animal. In an aged cow, which has had numerous calves, less 

 loss of blood will suffice than in a young one, whose constitution 

 is unimpaired, or an ox in full vigour. From the latter, two 

 gallons of blood may be extracted, while from the first, half 

 the quantity will probably suffice. To bleeding, aperient 

 medicine should be added ; and in this we can scarcely ever 

 do wrong, for cattle bear aperients, especially with a little 

 carminative, to excite the action of the stomachs, better than 

 the horse, in whom they sometimes produce dangerous irrita- 

 tion of the alimentary canal. 



It is to the inflammatory diseases of cattle, which demand 

 prompt measures, carried out with boldness, yet discretion, 

 that we shall first direct our attention 



SIMPLE FEVER. 



Cattle, especially in swampy lands, are subject to attacks 

 of fever; this is sometimes pure or idiopathic, and occa- 

 sionally assumes an intermittent form ; but if suffered to 

 proceed, some vital organ, predisposed to inflammation, 

 becomes as it were the centre of irritation, and the case may 

 terminate fatally. 



In simple fever the animal is languid and dull, it refuses 

 food, the hide loses its mellowness, the flanks heave, the 



