DISEASES OF YOUNG CALVES. 257 



spoonful or two of limewater must be given with each meal. Great 

 harm is often done by giving opium and astringents at the outset. 

 These merely serve to bind up the bowels and retain the irritant 

 source of the trouble; literally, "to shut up the wolf in the sheep- 

 fold." When the offending agents have been expelled in this way, 

 carminatives and demulcent agents may be given — 1 dram anise water, 

 1 dram nitrate of bismuth, and 1 dram gum arabic, three times a day. 

 Under such a course the consistency of the stools should increase 

 until in a day or two they become natural. 



If, however, the outbreak is more general and evidently the result 

 of contagion, the first consideration is to remove all sources of such 

 contamination. Test the milk of the cow with blue litmus paper, and, 

 if it reddens, reject the milk of that cow until by sound, dry feeding, 

 with perhaps a course of hyposulphite of soda and gentian root, her 

 milk shall have been made alkaline. The castor oil or magnesia will 

 still be demanded to clear away the (now infecting) irritants, but they 

 should be combined with antiseptics, and, while the limewater and the 

 carminative mixture may still be used, a most valuable addition will be 

 found in the following: Calomel, 10 grains; prepared chalk, 1 ounce; 

 creosote, 1 teaspoonful; mix, divide into ten parts, and give one four 

 times a day. Or the following may be given four times a day: One 

 dram Dover's powder, 6 grains powdered ipecacuanha; mix, divide 

 into ten equal parts. Injections of solutions of gum arabic are often 

 useful, and if the anus is red and excoriated, one-half dram of copperas 

 may be added to each pint of the gummy solution. All the milk given 

 must be boiled, and if that does not agree, eggs made into an emulsion 

 with barley water may be substituted. Small doses (tablespoonful) 

 of port wine are often useful from the first, and as the feces lose 

 their watery character and become more consistent, tincture of gen- 

 tian in doses of 2 teaspoonf uls may be" given three or four times a 

 day. Counterirritarts, such as mustard, ammonia, or oil of turpen- 

 tine, may be rubbed on the abdomen when that becomes tender to 

 the touch. 



ACUTE CONTAGIOUS SCOURING IN THE" NEWBORN. 



The most violent and deadly form of diarrhea in the newborn cab! 

 deserves a special mention. This may appear immediately after birth, 

 and shows itself almost invariably within the first or second day. The 

 most intense symptoms of white scour are complicated by great dull- 

 ness, weakness, and prostration, sunken eyes, retracted belly, short, 

 hurried breathing, and very low temperature, the calf lying on its 

 side, with the head resting on the ground, lethargic and unconscious 

 or regardless of all around it. The bowel discharges are profuse, 

 yellowish white, and very offensive. As a rule, death ensues within, 

 twenty-four to thirty-six hours. 



61386—08 17 



