22 Veterinary Medicine. 



After posture, the general or constitutional disorder may claim 

 attention. Is the illness acute or chronic ? Is fever present ? 

 Has the animal had a rigor ? Does the coat stare in patches 

 (along the spine) or generally ? Is there perspiration ? Is there 

 full, clear, somewhat congested eye (sthenic), or drooping lids 

 over a dull brownish sclerotic (asthenic)? Are the lower parts 

 of the limbs and other extremities cold, and the roots of the 

 horns or ears hot ? Is there significant heat and dryness of the 

 muzzle (ox), nose (dog), snout (pig), palmar-pad (carnivora), 

 hoof (soUdungula, bisculates), bill and digits (birds) ? Has the 

 mouth the hot burning feeHng of fever ? Finally is the temper- 

 ature as indicated by the thermometer abnormally high ? To 

 estimate this with any degree of certainty one must be well ac- 

 quainted with the normal temperature. 



Normal temperature. As taken indoors under ordinary con- 

 ditions, the normal temperature taken in the rectum may be : 

 Fowl, 107° — 110° F. ; swine, 103° — 106° F. ; goat and sheep, 103° 

 — 104° F.; ox, 100° — 102" F. ; dog, 99" — 100° F.; horse, 99° — 

 99.6° F. Ranging in the fields, at work, or on forcing or stimu- 

 lating feeding, it may be i " higher than when at rest indoors. A 

 whole herd may be raised 2° by a three miles drive in warm 

 weather. In our summer heats a rise of 1° is common. In 

 nervous animals any change in management may raise the tem- 

 perature, for example, i" to 2" after failure to water at the usual 

 time, or from retaining the milk in the udder when the milker 

 had been changed. Young animals are normally .5" to i" 

 warmer than old ones, though more sensitive to the action of 

 cold. Half starved animals, when put on abundant and nutri- 

 tious food may have a rise of i" or more. Females in heat, in 

 advanced pregnancy and at the time of parturition are usually 

 1° to 3° above the natural temperature. Among the agencies 

 lowering temperature are: Cold (i" to 2°), sleep (1° to 2°), 

 rest, starvation, alcoholic and other circulatory stimulants which 

 fill the cutaneous capillaries and thereby cool the whole mass of 

 blood ; suppression of insensible perspiration (retention of waste 

 matters) as by varnishing the skin which lowers the temperature 

 to 25" ; purgatives and diuretics (1°) ; certain drugs like anti- 

 pyrin, acetanilid, etc., which act on the heat producing centres 

 and retard metabolic changes. 



Temperature in disease. Comparative temperatures should 



