DISEASES FOLLOWING PARTURITION. 237 



5 ounces in a gallon of water. The milk may be drawn off with a 

 teat tube, or spring teat dilator (PI. XXIY, figs. 3 and 4), and the 

 milk ducts injected frequently with a solution of peroxide of hydro- 

 gen or iodoform. I have had little success in checking the upward 

 progress of the disease through the teat with carbolic acid or boracic 

 acid solutions. Used on the outside of the other teats, however, 

 these may serve to prevent them from becoming infected. In the 

 absence of peroxid of hydrogen the affected teat may be injected 

 with a solution of 1 grain corrosive sublimate in a pint of water, 

 and the same may be used on the other teats, provided it is washed 

 off every time before milking. 



As additional precautions, no cow with a retained afterbirth or 

 unhealthy discharge from the womb should be left with the other 

 cows. Such cows doubtless infect their own udders and those of- the 

 cows next them by lashing with the soiled tail. If milkers handle 

 retained afterbirth or vaginal discharge, or unhealthy wounds, or. 

 assist in a difficult and protracted parturition, they should wash the 

 hands and arms thoroughly with soap and warm water and then rub 

 them with the corrosive sublimate solution, or if not, at least with 

 one of carbolic acid. Clothes stained with such offensive products 

 should be washed. 



The general treatment of contagious mammitis does not differ from 

 that of the simple form, except that antiseptics should be given by 

 the mouth as well as applied locally (hyposulphite of soda, one-half 

 ounce daily). 



COWPOX. 



This is another form of contagious inflammation of the udder which 

 does not spread readily from animal to animal except by the hands 

 of the milker. It is held to. occur spontaneously in the cow, but this 

 is altogether improbable, and so-called spontaneous cases are rather 

 to be looked on as instances in which the germs have been preserved 

 dry in the buildings or introduced in some unknown manner. It is 

 not uncommon in the horse, attacking the heels, the lips, or some 

 other inoculated part of the body, and is then easily transferred to 

 the cow, if the same man grooms and dresses the horse and milks the 

 cow. It may also appear in the cow by infection, more or less direct, 

 from a person who has been successfully vaccinated. Many believe 

 that it is only a form of the smallpox of man modified by passing 

 through the system of cow or horse. It is, however, unreasonable to 

 suppose that this alleged modified smallpox could have been trans- 

 mitted from child to child (the most susceptible of the human race) 

 for ninety years, under all possible conditions, without once revert- 

 ing to its original type of smallpox. Chauveau's experiments on both 

 cattle and horses with the virus of smallpox and its inoculation back 

 on the human subject go far to show that in the, climate of western 



