DISEASES FOLLOWING PABTUKITION. 229 



sterilized, and this with the most perfect success. "With sterile air 

 Schmidt-Kolding claimed 96.7 per cent recoveries in 914 cases. In 

 America the full distention of the udder, whether with oxygen or fil- 

 tered air, has proved invariably successful in all kinds of cases, includ- 

 ing the violent ones that set in within a few hours after calving. In 

 one or two hours after the injection the cow has got up, had free pas- 

 sages from the bowels and bladder, bright expression of countenance, 

 and some return of appetite. In my cases which had made no response 

 for eight hours to the iodid injection, the injection of the udder to 

 full repletion with the gas (oxygen or air) has had immediately bene- 

 ficial results. 



A similar full distention of the bag with a common-salt solution 

 (0.5 to 100), or even with well-boiled water, is equally effective, but in 

 these cases the weight of the liquid causes dragging upon the udder 

 and a measure of discomfort which is escaped under the treatment 

 with gas. The value of each method depends on the fullness of dis- 

 tention of the udder and the arrest in larger part of the circulation 

 and chemical changes in its tissues. This distention acts like magic, 

 and seems to hardly admit of failure in securing a successful outcome. 



It can not, however, be recommended as absolutely devoid of dan- 

 gers and serious complications. To get the best results it should be 

 applied only by one who has been trained in the careful antiseptic 

 methods of the bacteriological laboratory. Some readers will recall 

 the case of the injection of the udders of show cows at Toronto to 

 impose upon the judges. The cows treated in this way had the udders 

 infected and ruined, and several lost their lives. There is no better 

 culture medium for septic and other germs than the first milk (colos- 

 trum) charged with albumen and retained in the warm udder. Already 

 in the hands of veterinarians even the Schmidt treatment has produced 

 a small proportion of cases of infective mammitis. How many more 

 such cases will develop if this treatment shall become a popular 

 domestic resort, applied by the dairyman himself in all sorts of sur- 

 roundings and with little or no antiseptic precaution. But even then 

 the losses will by no means approach the past mortality of 50 to 70 per 

 cent, so that the economy will be immeasurable under even the worst 

 conditions. A fair test and judgment of this treatment, however, can 

 only be obtained when the administrator is a trustworthy and pains- 

 taking man, well acquainted with bacteriological antisepsis and with 

 the general and special pathology of the bovine animal. 



The necessary precautions may be summarized as follows : 



(1) Provide an elastic rubber ball and tubes, furnished with valves 

 to direct the current of air, as in a common Davidson syringe. 



(2) Pill the delivery tube for a short distance with cotton, sterilized 

 by prolonged heating in a water bath. 



(3) In the free end of the delivery tube fit a milking tube to be 

 inserted into the teat. 



