THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC AMONG CATTLE. 
133 
Great alteration took place in the milk of some, in others there 
was scarcely any. In some it was quite putrid, others have yielded 
nothing but a whey-like fluid, and in a few it has been mixed with 
blood. 
The condition influenced the disease very much. In fat beasts 
the fever revelled to such a degree that it was difficult to manage 
them. There I gave physic, but to very little extent. If the 
air-passages and lungs were disturbed, I passed large setons through 
the dewlaps, and blistered the throat, varying my treatment accord- 
ing to circumstances, and generally with success. As regards the 
after-condition, they mended surprisingly fast in the summer time, 
when fed on green food: but they improve much more slowly 
in their stalls. I have known about half a dozen secondary cases, 
but in a very mild form, generally giving way to one dose of me- 
dicine. A great many persons in this neighbourhood have not 
given any medicine at all, leaving their patients entirely to the 
efforts of Nature : but in a great many instances of this kind I have 
observed she has not had sufficient power to throw off the malady; 
and, no assistance being given, chronic disease of either the lungs 
or the liver, or both, has been the consequence. Some of them 
have suffered from bronchitis and hoose, and others have been 
attacked by violent purging, and even by dysentery. 
The medicine that I generally gave was an aperient, combined 
with a sedative, and followed by a vegetable tonic. 
OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRESENT EPIDEMIC. 
By Mr. G. BAKER, M.R.C.S. and V.S., Rely ate. 
The epidemic in question has not here assumed that serious or 
malignant character which has marked its progress in many places ; 
but in our neighbourhood, generally, has manifested itself in a mild 
form, although most of the usual symptoms described by so many 
who have written on the subject were present, yet of a mitigated 
character. In some there was the depressed countenance and un- 
healthy appearance of the coat — the sunken eye — the hurried 
breathing and increased pulse — the ulcerated condition of the lining 
membrane of the mouth — the difficult and imperfect power of mas- 
tication and deglutition — diminution or total loss of appetite — the 
foetid breath — the rigidity of the limbs, which were sometimes tender 
and oedematous - the indurated, painful, and swollen state of the 
udder — the decreased quantity of milk — the restlessness and un- 
VOL. xiv. s 
