GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON PUERPERAL FEVER. 545 
— we arrive at some valuable conclusion when one party is found 
to be in error and the other to have truth on its side. There is 
no denying that, in some questions regarding either of these three 
subjects which I have mentioned, both parties may be found to 
be wrong; but still the one may have common sense and reason 
on his side, which the other has not — the one is advancing towards 
the truth, but the other is going in a contrary direction — the one 
sees light at a distance, but with the other all is 
“Dark as was chaos ere the infant sun 
Had tried his beams athwart the gloom profound/* 
I have been led to make these remarks from the long-continued 
discussion in The Veterinarian on Puerperal Fever ; fori 
had earnestly hoped, when you mentioned that the London Asso- 
ciation was about to discuss this subject, that its pathology and 
mode of treatment would be set at rest for ever. This, however, 
is not the case; and the discussions on this disease by the General 
Assembly (if I may be allowed so to term the Association) were 
very unsatisfactory — they left the disease in a w T orse form than 
that in which they found it. Before the debate we justly relied 
on the talented description of it found in the work on “ Cattle,” 
in the Library of Useful Knowledge; but now, this very work, 
in consequence of the new theory , is looked on by some with 
suspicion, and a doubt hangs over their minds as to its correct- 
ness. This I must say, has been clearly the result. 
I do not insinuate that some have spoken and written on this 
disease who were far from being competent to the task ; but from 
many of their conclusions I am compelled to infer that the patho- 
logical part of their education must have been sadly neglected, or 
else they must have confounded this disease with some others that 
require very different treatment indeed. What more glaring 
instance of absurdity can I mention than what is stated by one 
of your correspondents in The Veterinarian for February, 
page 93? There, we are told, was a case of puerperal fever in a 
cow, and that the “ stimulating treatment,” recommended by 
some one, was “ adopted with complete success.” But what sort 
of stimulating treatment, think ye, was this ? It was opening 
both jugulars (one being insufficient) and abstracting nine quarts 
of blood ; and giving one pound of sulphate of magnesia, with 
some more medicines of a stimulating nature. What progress is 
veterinary science making when such treatment as this can be 
called “ stimulating?” 
In this very case no information is given regarding the state of 
the pulse — the criterion which ought to regulate the abstraction of 
