66 
ANIMAL PATHOLOGY. 
readily imagine that they will be rarer still, or perhaps altogether 
absent, in the ox. 
The different Causes of Palsy in the Ox. — The ox is compara- 
tively little affected by the usual exciting causes of palsy in the 
horse. Neither the rapid nor the violent exertions of the muscular 
system are required from him, to which the horse is often doomed ; 
and from mechanical injuries arising from falls or cruel blows, 
he is in a manner exempt; but he is liable to the influence of 
other causes, and of one more than all the rest, — too frequent 
exposure to cold and moisture. 
Symptoms. — I will suppose you to be hereafter settled in a low, 
marshy, woody country. Early in the spring, and late in the 
autumn, and at every sudden and considerable change of tem- 
perature, you will have palsy prevailing among the cattle in your 
neighbourhood. Sometimes the attack will be mild, and the 
progress of the disease slow. The animal will cease to feed — he 
will low piteously — he will stand with his back bowed — he will 
stagger as he walks — he will almost drag his feet behind him, 
or the pastern will be flexed fornard ; it will bend to the ground, 
and the animal will walk upon it. The weakness will gradually 
increase during a day or two — he will struggle against the com- 
plaint as long as he can — the weakness will be referrible to the 
hind legs principally or altogether — it will shift from leg to leg, 
until at length he will fall, utterly unable to rise again. 
At other times the attack will be more sudden ; it will be so 
especially with milch cows that have been housed in the winter 
and turned out too early in the spring. It is scarcely credible 
what mischief one cold sleety night will effect. The cows are 
left, perhaps, apparently quite unaffected — at all events with 
nothing very Serious the matter with them ; and on the next 
morning five or six of them will be found chilled y palsied, and 
will continue helpless during several weeks. I knew one that 
did not get up for more than two months : she lay on her belly with 
her hind legs stretched out behind her, and had we not confined 
her, she would have sadly excoriated herself by travelling about 
the cow-house in this position. She got up at last, very much 
emaciated ; and being brought as soon as possible into tolerable 
plight, she was sold. 
When they are once down, it is impossible to calculate how long 
they will bear up against the debilitating influence of the disease. 
The appetite will return — it will become as good as ever ; and 
these miserable animals will drag themselves along many a yard 
on their chest and belly in search of food. There is a case upon 
record, in which a cow was cruelly kept in this state eighteen 
months. They become, as you may suppose, sadly excoriated ; 
