OBSERVATIONS ON PARTURIENT APOPLEXY. 671 
benefit ; but unless tbe accumulation and distention is very 
great, I prefer endeavouring to neutralize the gas by chemical 
agents. 
With regard to internal remedies, powerful stimulants, 
combined at the outset with purgatives, constitute un- 
doubtedly the great element of success in milk fever cases. 
There is no question, as Mr. Santy observes, about the brain 
being the seat of the disease ; in fact, it is evident even to 
those unacquainted with pathology that such is the case, and 
that the hind quarters are also deprived of nerve force ; hence 
the necessity for internal stimulants to overcome the first, as 
brandy and Ammon. Carb., and external ones the latter, as 
mustard and Liq. Ammon, along the course of the spine, par- 
ticularly the lumbar region, succeeded by bags of hot salt 
continually replaced. 
I have heard but little said as to any application being 
used to the head in this malady, independently of internal 
remedies ; and as it contains that organ (viz. the brain) which 
is the chief seat of the mischief, it is a part that certainly 
should not be lost sight of. I always find great benefit from 
the application of cold water to the poll of the head, either by 
laying a saturated swab between the horns, and not allowing 
it to get hot or dry, or pouring on a continuous stream of 
cold water. I have also in the winter time used ice, placing 
it at the back of the horns, and allowing it to remain until it 
melts. Such cooling applications are particularly beneficial 
when the patient is in a semi-conscious state, and often wards 
off that entire coma, whjch is so much to be dreaded in this 
disease ; even when the animal is comatose it subdues to a 
considerable extent the inflammatory action and congestion 
of the brain. 
There is, however, a great deal yet to learn in connection 
with this, at present, fatal disease ; and I trust the pages of 
the Veterinarian will continue to reveal to its readers much 
of the valuable information so much desired and required in 
reference to the common, and, if I may so express it, everyday 
maladies. By an interchange of opinion we gain knowledge, 
and ho better medium can we have for so doing than the 
pages of this valuable journal. 
