PALSY— CESTRUM— MILK FEVER. 691 
as ever. Increase the dose of strychnine to three quarters of a 
grain. 
Sept. 1st . — To my great surprise she was found dead this morn- 
ing. On making the usual longitudinal incision through the 
integument of the abdomen, a considerable quantity of milky 
fluid, mingled with blood, followed the knife. There was very 
slight enlargement of the teats, but intense inflammation of the 
whole of the mammary substance. The whole of the omentum, 
and particularly the portion opposite to the external disease, was 
also inflamed. Beside this there was not a vestige of disease. 
This is an interesting case, and deserves record. I fear that 
justice was not done to the animal at the commencement of the 
paralytic affection. In nineteen cases out of twenty in the dog, 
the constant but mild stimulus of a charge over the lumbar 
and sacral regions removes the deeper seated inflammation of 
the spinal cord or its membranes, when the palsy is confined to 
the hind extremities, and has not been sufficiently long established 
to produce serious change of structure. The charge should have 
been applied at first. The almost total disappearance of the 
palsy during the cutaneous disease — that species of mange which 
is attended by more than usual inflammation of the integument, 
and heat and itching — is an instructive illustration of the power 
of counter-irritation, and of what might possibly have been 
effected in the first case. The cause of the paralysis, however, 
whatever it might have been, — and we had no means of ascer- 
taining that, for the body was wanted at the museum, — was for 
a while subdued, but not removed ; and the external irritation was 
no sooner removed, than the internal disease was again speedily 
developed. A little time was once more lost before the applica- 
tion of the charge ; and when, at length, it was applied, it and 
the strychnine were powerless. 
The cause of the palsy seems to have been of a local na- 
ture, for it interfered not materially, for a considerable time, with 
the functions of animal life : the appetite was good, the bowels, 
although not acting freely, were not constipated, and the peri- 
odical oestrum appeared. The secretion of milk succeeded to 
this at the usual period ; but she had been lying on her belly dur- 
ing several months, and the mammae were, probably, more or 
less excoriated, and disposed to inflammation. The distention 
of the vessels, and the irritation caused by the secretion of the 
milk, speedily produced local inflammation in its acutest form : 
it quickly spread to the omentum, and the powers of nature, 
which had so long been struggling with the former maladies, 
sunk at once. 
