452 
ON THE MILK EEVER IN CATTLE* 
but the poorest and most miserable cattle are occasionally the 
subjects of’ this disease ; and especially if, on account of their 
calving, they have been moved from scanty to luxuriant pasture* 
or from low keep to high stall feeding. A great deal depends on 
the quantity of milk which the cow naturally yields. The great 
milkers are the most subject to this disease, and they are not 
always in the best condition. If from some affection of the sys¬ 
tem the secretion of milk is stopped, (and the stoppage of the milk 
is an early symptom, and one of the most frequent), it is easy to see 
that the violence of the subsequent fever may bear a near relation 
to the quantity of the suspended secretion. It has often been 
observed that the udder has enlarged, and become hot and tender 
a day or two before the attack. This enlargement and inflam¬ 
mation of the bag is generally attended by partial or total sus¬ 
pension of the milk. Milk fever does not often attack the cow 
. at her first calving, because at the usual early age at which she 
first is bred from, much nourishment, and that which is the nidus 
or the matrix of excitement and fever, goes to the gradual de- 
velopment of her own form, as well as to the growth of the foetus. 
Instances do, however, occur of the cow “ dropping” after her 
first calving. 
The early symptoms of the disease are evidently of a febrile 
character. The animal is restless, shifting her feet, pawing; the 
nostrils are expanded, and she heaves laboriously at the flanks. 
The peculiar secretion from the follicular glands of the muzzle 
ceases, and that part becomes dry and hot. The countenance is 
wild, and the eyes protruding. She wanders about, mournfully 
lowing,—becomes irritable—buts at a stranger, and even at the 
herdsman. The mouth isopen, and the tongue protruded, some¬ 
times almost as much as if she had the blain. 
If the practitioner has fortunately been called in at this period, 
the disease will usually be subdued without much difficulty. If 
eight or ten quarts of blood be drawn, and a pound and a half of 
Epsom salts given, the fever will often disappear as suddenly as 
it rose # . 
There is no principle by which the practitioner on the diseases 
of cattle should be so uniformly guided as the necessity of 
knocking down every inflammatory complaint at once by the 
* I do not, however, believe that many of my readers would give the 
dose prescribed by Mr. Parkinson,—“ a pint of salt in a quart of chamber- 
lie or acquiesce in the force of the reasoning by which he recommends it: 
u The mixture of salt and chamberlie renders them thirstv, and the exer- 
cise they are compelled to take in obtaining water is very beneficial, and 
at no time of more consequence than about this crisis.”— Parkinson on Live 
Stock” vol. i, p.20. 
