DISEASES OP THE BLOOD. 173 



every possible manner. When sloughing has taken place, 

 antiseptic dressings must be applied to the exposed sur- 

 faces. For prevention of outbreaks among the rest of the 

 herd, bleeding is often resorted to, but its value is doubt- 

 ful. Administration of a cathartic dose and insertion of 

 a seton in the dewlap are recommended by experience. 

 Antiseptics should be freely administered, and the animals 

 should be removed from the pasture to which the attack 

 is attributed. When the disease is seen in its earliest 

 stages bleeding may be practised with benefit. 



Pyamia and Septicemia (except the " parturient fever '' 

 forms) are not often noticed in works on cattle pathology, 

 but we must devote a few lines to them here, because of 

 their importance in any system of classification of diseases, 

 and because, though they have not often been observed, 

 they probably do affect bovines. The latest views con- 

 cerning their nature may be seen in the ' Veterinarian '' 

 for January, 1880, where Dr. Greenfield draws a dis- 

 tinction between these two diseases, which are too often 

 confounded. 



Pyemia is an invasion of the system by micrococci, 

 very simple bacteria, which are developed when atmo- 

 spheric germs fall on pus. -They enter the system, cause 

 fever, and the formation of '' secondary " abscess is in 

 various parts of the body. They are enabled to produce 

 the abscesses by accumulation in branches of small blood- 

 vessels and migration into the surrounding intercellular 

 interspaces, there giving rise to irritation. The patient 

 frequently succumbs to the weakening efPects of con- 

 siderable suppuration and fever. Cruzel treats of this 

 disease at some length. 



Septicemia results from the entry into the blood of one 

 of the organisms which abound in putrid solutions. It is 

 probably not the ordinary bacterium of putrefaction 

 {B, termo). The blood undergoes putrefactive changes, 

 and the whole system collapses, yielding to gangrenous 

 results in various parts of the body. It supervenes on 

 poisoned wounds, &c. 



Paetueient Septicemia, " Parturient Fever,^^ has been 



