320 
ON PUERPERAL FEVER. 
allow lue to congratulate our profession upon the improvement 
that is, 1 hope, fast establishing itself at our College at St. Pan- 
eras ; I mean the introduction of instruction on the diseases of the 
ruminant, which for a long series of years has been entirely lost 
sight of; and I think but for your great exertions, conjoined with 
those of several zealous and talented practitioners in various parts 
of the country, it must have died a natural death. 
•/ ' 
Case I .—June \.th, 1839, I was requested to attend a cow that 
had dropped after calving, the property of a cottager; she was of 
the Welsh breed. On my arrival, I found her in a very precarious 
state. There was a considerable degree of fever; the nose dry 
and parched; the eyes sunk in their orbits; repeatedly moaning; 
greatly distended with gas; the extremities cold, the udder also 
hard and much inflamed, with only a small quantity of milk, and 
that of a watery description. She had refused all food, and no¬ 
thing had passed in the shape of faeces. 
The owner informed me that she had calved on the 1st of May, 
and dropped about an hour afterwards; that he had sent for the 
village farrier, who had given her some caudle with something, as 
he said, of a nourishing nature; this they had continued twice 
a-day until June 4th, when I was requested to attend. 
I found her as above described. I looked upon the case as hope¬ 
less, but immediately commenced operations, first by administering 
aloes Barb, in sol. 3 ij, with ol. lini Ifej, and 2 quarts of warm water 
after it: I threw up injections of warm water, and removed a great 
quantity of hardened fseces of the most offensive nature I ever met 
with, and the colour of coal tar. Having succeeded so far, I pro¬ 
ceeded to insert a seton on each side of the lumbar region, of the 
length of six inches, which 1 stimulated with the following lini¬ 
ment, ol. oliv. §iij, ammon. fort. Jiij, the whole of which I rub¬ 
bed into the setons and back. 
This caused a considerable irritation, and was productive of the 
greatest effect; for, to my astonishment, in a few minutes she rose 
voluntarily, but in a dreadfully weak state, and voided more faeces. 
She again lay down, but appeared much easier. I stayed with 
her some time, giving her repeatedly small quantities of gruel, 
after which she rose again, and walked round the hovel. I left 
her the same drench as before to be given at night, and ordered 
her back to be frequently stimulated, and also milked every two 
hours. 
^ih, A.M.—Much better; ha(i suckled her calf during the morn¬ 
ing ; bowels freely opened, and had eaten a little mash in the 
course of the night, also a little grass: she had likewise walked 
about the hovel during the night. R digitalis p. 3 !, nitrat. sether. 
5ss, tine, opii aquae Ifej. Dress setons. 
