THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 229 



must be kept freely relaxed : this is most essential ; the 

 animal should be comfortably housed, and well littered ; and 

 a rug or coarse blanket should be thrown over the loins, 

 which latter may be well rubbed occasionally with a stimu- 

 lating embrocation, as turpentine, olive oil, and hartshorn 

 (or liq. ammonias) ; or blisters may be produced by thoroughly 

 rubbing in the blister ointment.* The food should consist 

 of gruel, with a little hay, and green fodder. In three or 

 four weeks, if all goes on well, recovery will take place. 



Nux vomica, or its principle strychnine, have been recom- 

 mended in these cases ; and in France, the former has been 

 given with success, in ounce doses. It is not a medicine to 

 be used rashly, or by any but a veterinary surgeon, in the 

 treatment of cattle. 



EPILEPSY. 



In many animals, particularly such as are kept in con- 

 finement and fed high, epilepsy is a frequent disease ; but it 

 is not of common occurrence among horned cattle, and 

 indeed, then, it is chiefly in young cattle that it takes place. 

 Young beasts in high condition, excited by overdriving, or a 

 sultry state of the atmosphere, are the most liable to be 

 seized with it. It arises from a sudden determination of blood 

 to the head: the animal suddenly staggers, reels and falls, the 

 limbs are convulsed, often violently, the flanks heave with aston 

 ishing force, the jaws are clenched, the teeth grind, the mouth 

 foams with froth, and the faeces and urine are discharged 

 involuntarily. Sometimes the animal bellows loudly, but 

 this is not always the case. The fit varies greatly in duration; 

 sometimes it is over in half a minute, at other times it may 

 last for many minutes ; the convulsions gradually cease, the 

 animal rises staggering and bewildered, it gazes around, and 

 gradually recovering its faculties, commences its repast as 

 before. It is seldom that an animal which has fallen in a fit 

 of epilepsy has not a return of the complaint, perhaps even 

 during the same day, and that more than once. The disease is 

 in fact liable to become habitual, the fits following each other at 

 shorter intervals, till in one of more than usual severity the 

 animal dies. Bleeding, active aperients, and a restricted diet, 

 are the only remedies, with a seton in the dewlap, or on the 



* One drachm of tartar emetic, with six of lard, make a powerful irritant, 

 causing a pustular eruption of the skin, when properly rubbed, and is useful in 

 cases where blister ointment is inadmissible. 



