6 BOVINE PATHOLOGY, 



value of good cases is often lost from paucity or inaccu- 

 racy of records of the early stages. In each case a 

 regular system should be adopted; dates especially should 

 be insisted upon, and all records should be made at once. 

 We have found the following a satisfactory system of 

 record : 



Date of admission Date of 

 Case. Colour. Sex. Age. to treatment. discharge. Disease. Progress. 



Pulse, "j State of the blood, if any has 



Respirations, > On special chart. been removed. 



Internal temperature, J Conditions of mucous mem- 



Excretions, branes. 



Appetite, Temperature of surface of body 



and condition of the skin. 

 Special features of case. 



The Pulse is due to periodical enlargement of arteries 

 such as results from their distension with blood in con- 

 sequence of the hearths beat. It is one of the most useful 

 indications of the state of an animal's health, and can be 

 taken at any accessible artery ; but, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, we utilise for this purpose only such vessels as 

 are but slightly separated from the surface of the body, 

 and are so placed in relation to hard structures that they 

 can be compressed against the hard adjacent tissues by 

 the fingers, and thus their beats rendered perceptible to 

 the observer. These beats vary in number with the 

 heart's contractions, and are perceptible sooner after the 

 heart's beat in vessels near that organ than in those more 

 remote. They depend upon the conditions of the arteries 

 as well as of the heart, and the vessels passing from the 

 heart are so constructed that the pulse is less marked in 

 the smaller arteries than in the larger ones, even rela- 

 tively, and disappears in the smallest of these vessels. 

 The sphygmograph is an instrument used to obtain a 

 written record of the condition of the pulse ; it has not 

 yet been applied to veterinary surgery. The pulse assumes 

 various characters according to its rapidity of beat, frequency 

 of occurrence, resistance to pressure, regularity, and per- 

 ceptibility. Thus we have the quick and slow, frequent and 

 infrequent, hard and soft, full and imperceptible, large and 



