INTRODUCTION. 69 



matters which constitute the meconium. The milk may 

 be bloody, may contain pus or specific virus. It requires 

 special examination in each case of disorder, for in some 

 instances it can convey disease to animals of other species, 

 even to man. Death of the ox may take place by either of 

 the above described methods, necraemia being observable 

 in such disease as anthrax, according to some pathologists, 

 while others attribute the fatal result to asphyxia. With 

 regard to morbid changes, the degenerations of various 

 kinds are frequent, especially the caseous and calcareous, 

 and the tendency of disease is to the production of deposits 

 of a lymphy or serous character rather than to gangrene 

 and ulceration. Abscesses are frequent, metastases seldom 

 occur, haBmorrhages are rather frequent. Inflammation 

 tends rather to the chronic type, and is less frequent than 

 in most other animals subjected to similarly complex 

 conditions as the ox. Epizootic and enzootic diseases will 

 occupy a great deal of our space as being of great 

 importance, numerous, and widespread, causing immense 

 annual loss to stock owners, and often directly related 

 to human disorders. 



In the treatment of the diseases of the ox palliative 

 measures are often important as giving time for fattening 

 or as preserving an animal useful for breeding or dairy 

 purposes. Curative means of medicinal character are 

 often hampered by our deficiency in information as to the 

 specific influence of certain agents on the ox and the doses 

 in which they should be administered. Surgical opera- 

 tions of minor importance as oesophagotomy, tracheotomy, 

 and puncture of the rumen are frequent, while major 

 operations, amputations, lithotomy, laparotomy, &c., are- 

 occasionally resorted to and might be more frequent, but 

 we have already mentioned how our bovine patients are 

 frequently handed over to the butcher without our having 

 had a fair trial of curative means. In accordance with 

 paucity of major operations anaesthetics are seldom re- 

 sorted to, but various means of restraint are adopted. 

 Altogether cattle are not endowed with high nervous 

 organisation, and will therefore stand operations very well^ 



