Observations on the Disease of the Core, 
natural maternal interest towards her calf, will be observed to 
suddenly stagger, fall, and soon to pass into a comatose condi- 
tion, which ends too often in speedy death. 
Indications and Progress of the Attack. — Apart from 
the very exceptional cases alluded to in which the attack takes 
place even before parturition, I may here repeat that immediately 
after her delivery the cow is likely to be affected. The earlier 
the attack, the more serious does the case become as a rule. 
In some instances premonitory symptoms are to be observed ; 
but not in the majority of cases. Indeed it will be found that 
not only has the cow calved without difficulty, and labour been 
completed by the expulsion of the foetal membranes ; but that 
she has yielded a fair quantity of milk, partaken of her food 
v/ith an appetite, has ruminated, digested, and assimilated it, and 
voided the fa?culent matter in its natural condition, and given 
every other indication of unimpaired health. Suddenly, how- 
ever, she is observed to cease feeding, to stagger or assume a 
fixed position, seemingly conscious that if she attempts to move 
she will fall. The eyes becomes glassy and amaurotic, and 
with a bewildered stare she recognises her calf for an instant, 
moans or bellows, staggers and falls. With mouth half open, 
tongue protruding, breathing laboured and countenance ex- 
pressive of intense suffering, she will sometimes make two or 
three ineffectual attempts to rise. As a rule, however, she 
remains down and either throws herself on her side, or lies on 
the belly with the head carried backwards towards the flank, 
and resting on the floor. The body becomes clammy, the ex- 
tremities cold, and the evacuations of faeces and urine cease. 
The pupilary openings of the eyes are dilated, and the vessels 
of eyelids engorged with blood, tears hot unfrequently trickling 
down the face. Perfect unconsciousness quickly succeeds, or, in 
medical language, she becomes comatose, and one by one the 
special senses are lost as well as all voluntary movements. 
Coma has been rightly defined to be " that condition in which 
the functions of animal life are suspended, with the exception of 
the mixed function of respiration ; while the functions of organic 
life, and especially of the circulation, continue in action. There 
is neither thought, nor the power of voluntary motion nor sensa- 
tion." * Thus it will be observed that in the stricken cow the 
eyes are insensible to the stimulus of light, the limbs to feeling, 
the ears to sound, and the nostrils to the sense of smell. The 
taste also and the power of deglutition are gone, the breathing 
is difficult and stertorous, and the pulse indistinct, wavering and 
irregular. Besides the loss of swallowing, the implication of 
the digestive organs in the morbid process is shown by the 
* Dr. Thomas AVatson's looturcs on the prindples and practice of physic. 
