380 CONTRIBUTIONS TO VETERINARY PATHOLOGY. 
they are capable of devouring, and which they appear so much to 
desire. I should commence the process for eight or ten days prior 
to calving, or even with some animals, much earlier; and the diet 
I would give should consist of bran, boiled linseed, and boiled oats, 
with occasionally small portions of hay. I should not always feed 
upon one mixture. I might occasionally substitute boiled barley 
in place of oats; and when the time for calving was very near at 
hand, say within a day or so, I should become more sparing with 
my hay, and more copious in my allowance of bran. With regard 
to the diet after calving, I should pursue much the same course I 
have named ; perhaps for the first thirty hours I might allow the 
animal nothing but gruel and bran mash, in which I would mix a 
little oatmeal, or very thick gruel. I have sometimes thought (but 
hitherto it has never gone beyond a thought with me) that a broad 
cotton or linen bandage, fixed moderately tight round the cow’s 
body immediately after calving, might prove of some assistance as 
a preventive. I have had no experience of its benefit myself; I 
merely suggest the thing; and if it did nothing more, it would pre- 
vent, in some measure, the animal from feeling that sensation of 
vacuity which must necessarily exist immediately and for some 
time after calving ; and which I think, under some conditions of 
the system, maybe injurious to the animal. I am told by a medical 
friend of mine, that he has known puerperal fever produced in 
women solely from midwives neglecting to bandage them after de- 
1 ivery ; at any rate, a bandage or a broad belt having straps and 
buckles attached, and placed securely round the cow’s body imme- 
diately after calving, and kept there for a day or two, could do no 
harm if it failed in doing any good. 
Fifthly, Which is the best method of TREATMENT to pursue with 
cotvs ivhen attacked with puerperal fever ? Upon this question I 
feel that I could say much, but at present I defer its consideration ; 
my contribution, I find, has already run to such a length, that was I 
to exhaust this last question I should swell it beyond all reason- 
able bounds. Suffice it to say, then, that I never either bleed or 
administer purgatives. I used once to do both, but my experience 
has shewn me in numerous cases that neither are necessary. This, 
I dare say, to the majority of veterinarians, will read somewhat 
strangely, being, as it is, totally at variance with almost every 
thing which hitherto has been taught upon the subject. The cases 
which I give, and the mode in which these cases were treated, so far 
as they go, are triumphant to every doubt which may be expressed 
by any one sceptical upon the question. I shall, however, wait 
with eagerness to read the opinions of others upon a matter of such 
weighty import; and, in conclusion, I earnestly entreat as many 
veterinary surgeons as possible to step forward and state their ex- 
