346 MR. youatt’s veterinary lectures. 
good may be done now. The lungs of the cow have not been so 
sadly used as those of the horse, nor is the process of disorgani¬ 
zation so rapid. The golden time is, however, suffered to pass 
by, because the animal does not seem to lose much flesh, and 
gives milk as abundantly as before. She was designed to accu¬ 
mulate flesh, and to give milk ; and she will continue to do so ; 
and the appetite, by which alone the means of doing this can be 
accomplished, will continue unimpaired long after local disorga¬ 
nization and mischief have commenced. Besides, she is not 
hurried beyond her will and her strength by the caprice or cruelty 
of her owner, and thus the progress of the mischief unnecessarily 
and rapidly increased. Weeks and months—shall I say years ?— 
will pass on, and there will be nothing to indicate the formation 
of tubercles in the lungs, but the inward, feeble, painful, hoarse, 
gurgling cough. Study it, gentlemen, carefully. It will advise 
you of the existence of the mischief, while, perhaps, it is reme¬ 
diable ; and the accuracy of your prognosis, even although the 
farmer may not at the moment listen to you, will afterwards ma¬ 
terially add to your reputation. 
Treatment of the early Stage, —You have two ways of saving 
the animal here. Your bleeding and digitalis may quiet the irrita¬ 
tion of the lungs, or at least prevent an exacerbation of the dis¬ 
ease ; for although in some cases the next steps are a staring 
coat, hidebound, loss of flesh, and diminution of milk, yet much 
oftener the progress of the disease is hastened by carelessness or 
accident. The cow is exposed too soon after calving, or at other 
times unnecessarily exposed to the vicissitudes of the weather, 
while she is neglected and half-starved ; thus she gets cold; and 
the lungs, already irritable by disease and disorganization, take 
on inflammation ; and that becomes highly intense, and either 
kills the animal at once, or increases and hastens the change of 
structure in which phthisis consists. 
Deceptive Stature of the Disease. —Here let me press on your 
minds a lesson of caution. You attack this new inflammation 
promptly and skilfully, and you apparently subdue it. Appetite, 
condition, a plentiful secretion of milk, return. Is the cough 
gone ? “ the painful, inward, feeble gurgling cough ?” If that re¬ 
mains, there is mischief still,—irretrievable mischief. All you 
have done stands for nothing, unless you follow up your blow, 
and drive away the cough as well as the inflammation. 
Slow Progress of the Disease. —If you are satisfied with what 
you have done, or the penurious and illiberal proprietor forbids 
you to proceed, weeks and months may again pass, and no cause 
for alarm may appear, because, as I have already said, the lungs 
of the cow, although irritable enough from the disease, will not 
