) 
ON THE MILK FEVER IN CATTLE, &C. 451 
has been wrought in her constitution, and the great increase of 
muscle, that her action over deep ground will be as firm and 
good, as it is elegant and true over light. 
Nim rod. 
Beaurepaire, 
July 20th, 1830. 
ON THE MILK FEVER IN CATTLE, OR DROPPING 
AFTER CALVING. 
Bij Mr. You att. 
For a short time after parturition, the females of all our 
domestic animals appear to labour under a high degree of febrile 
excitement. The bitch a few days after pupping, will some¬ 
times pant, heave, refuse her food, become delirious, convulsed, 
insensible to external objects, and, except speedily relieved, die. 
The ewe, shortly after lambing, heaves, drops, and almost sud¬ 
denly dies; and the cow, two, three, or four days after calving, 
exhibits symptoms of the untractable and fatal disease which is 
the subject of this paper. 
A high degree of febrile excitement accompanies the period of 
parturition ; and local inflammations of the womb or the bowels, 
or any of the viscera, assume an intensity, a peculiar character, 
a degree of obstinacy, and a fatality unknown at other times. 
The milk-fever of cattle is one of the opprobria of our art, 
principally for the reasons just stated ; and because the practitioner 
is rarely consulted until the disease has almost run its rapid and 
fatal course. By farmers, and I fear by many practitioners, it is 
only recognised by the symptoms which attend the winding up 
of the tragedy. The earlier deviations from a healthy condition 
arc unobserved by the agriculturist, and not recognised by the 
veterinary surgeon. 
Any inflammatory affection of the womb, or of the intestines, 
and to which cows at this period are very subject, assumes, as I 
have stated, an intensity of character truly specific. The affec¬ 
tion may primarily be that of some particular viscus, but it soon 
merges in a peculiar general inflammatory affection, as rapid in 
its progress as it is violent in its nature; and speedily followed 
by a prostration of vital power which bids defiance to every 
stimulus. 
Cows in high condition are most subject to an attack of this 
disease. Their excess of condition disposes them to affections of 
an inflammatory character at all times, and more particularly 
when the constitution labours under the high febrile excitement 
accompanying parturition. It is not, however, peculiar to these; 
