ON PUERPERAL FEVER IN THE COW. 
503 
ing arterial action, removing accumulations, and causing derivation. 
Here, however, in addition to the usual difficulty of exciting purga- 
tion in cattle under disease, we have a peculiar unsusceptibility of 
stomach and bowels unknown at any other time ; consequently the 
ordinary purgatives, and in usual quantities, are totally inefficaci- 
ous. We must trust only to the most powerful. A combination, 
also, of several ingredients is preferable to the administration of a 
single one, even should it be proportionate in strength to such 
combination. 
The formula I would advise is this : — ol. lini. Ojss, pulv. sem. 
croton 9j, hydrarg. sub. 3j,pulv. aloe. Bbd. §ij, pulv. zingib. rad. 
§ij. The aloes should be powdered, dissolved in boiling water, to 
which the other ingredients are to be added, and carefully admi- 
nistered. fn order to facilitate the operation of medicine, clysters 
should be frequently employed, and, if administered with the patent 
syringe, one end of the tube may be introduced with an arm in 
the rectum for a considerable distance, and a greater probability 
will thus be afforded of softening any hardened faeces. Clysters 
may be composed of soap or salt and water, with, now and then, 
an ounce of aloes in solution, and half a pint of oil of turpentine. 
All our endeavours, after plentiful blood-letting, should be directed 
towards unloading the bowels, as being inferior to no other means 
in acting upon the nervous system ; therefore, so long as power of 
deglutition remains, and torpidity of the bowels continues, one-third 
of the above formula should be given at intervals of four to six 
hours ; combined, as the disease advances, with ounce-doses of 
nitrous ether, increasing also the proportion of ginger, bearing in 
mind that all may fall into the paunch, where it will lie compara- 
tively inert. In the cow we have little fear of exciting superpur- 
gation — at least we seldom see such permanently injurious effects 
from that cause, as too often occur in the horse under disease. 
Diuretic medicines are frequently advised by many practitioners, 
a judicious use of which is proper, more especially when the disease 
advances, as tending, by other means, to effect the ends contem- 
plated by blood-letting and purgatives, viz. promoting a separa- 
tion of ingredients from an already vitiated circulating fluid ; 
retention whereof, though highly injurious, the kidneys, from 
an imperfect performance of their functions, cease effectually to 
secrete. 
An external application of stimulants, in order to be of full 
service, should precede departure of sensation, under which cir- 
cumstances they are of great utility. I consider the application of 
a powerful blister immediately behind the ears, extending well back 
and beneath them, to be a situation whereon counter-irritation can 
be applied perhaps as near the seat of disease, or, at all events, the 
