1 8 The Farmer's Veterinary A&oiser. 



domestic animals is best taken by inserting tbe bulb of a 

 clinical thermometer three inches or more into the gut (rec- 

 tum) and leaving it there three minutes. After it has been 

 used, the registering column must be shaken down to below 

 the natural temperature of the next animal on which it is to 

 be employed. The natural temperature is for the fowl, 

 107° F. to 110° F. ; swine, 104° ; goat and sheep, 102° to 

 103° ; cow, 101° to 102° ; dog, 99° to 100° ; horse, 99° to 

 99.6°. Banging in the fields, at work, or under a summer 

 sun, it may be a degree higher than at other times. Female 

 animals in heat are two or three degrees above the natural, 

 and in advanced preghancy and at parturition they may also 

 be two degi-ees higher. 



Fever Temperature. A temporary rise of one or two de- 

 grees is unimportant, but a permanent rise indicates fevej-. 

 A rise of ten or twelve degrees is usually fatal. A sudden 

 fall to or below the natural, unless with general improve- 

 ment in the symptoms, indicates sinking. A similar fall, 

 with a free secretion (perspiration, urination, relaxed 

 bowels) and general improvement in symptoms, betokens 

 recovery. 



Retention of water in the fevered system is as significant 

 as the elevated temperature. The patient drinks greedily, 

 but all the secretions are arrested or diminished, and liquids 

 go on accumulating in the system. The sudden bursting 

 forth of secretions (especially sweating) implies that the fever 

 has, at least temporarily, given way. 



The production of waste matters in the system is necessa- 

 rily proportionate to the amount of tissue destroyed. This 

 appears in the blood mainly as urea, the organic acid of 

 urine (hippuric in herbivora, uric in earnivora), together 

 with phosphates, sulphates, and chlorides. These thrown 

 off by the urine give it its high density. If not thus thi-own 

 off, they remain as poisons in the circulation and bring about 

 that prostrate, sunken, debilitated condition which charac- 



