CONSUMPTION IN COWS. 
347 
be rendered more so by ill-timed or cruel exertion; and the acute 
diseases of the luno-s in the cow are more those of the investins: 
membrane than of the substance ; they partake more of pleurisy 
than of pneumonia. Another attack of acute inflammation may 
follow, and that again be subdued, until at length symptoms of irre¬ 
trievable mischief, which no man can mistake, begin to appear. 
She wastes more or less rapidly ; her hide sticks to her bones ; 
her milk gradually diminishes; she becomes evidently weak; 
yet still she eats, eats with almost jtndiminished appetite : but the 
process of rumination, requiring long and now fatiguing action 
of the jaw, is more slowly performed. Then appears that which 
accompanies almost every disease of the ox, inflammation of the 
subcutaneous tissue. On whatever part of the animal you press, 
she shrinks ; and if you press upon the loins, where this circum¬ 
stance is always most evident, she will not only shrink under 
your hand, but probably moan with intensity of pain. The 
cough now becomes even more painful and frequent, and is ac¬ 
companied by discharge from the mouth or nostrils of a puru¬ 
lent, or bloody, or fetid character. The offensive smell increases 
to an almost insupportable degree as the termination of the dis¬ 
ease approaches. 
Later Symptoms. —When this stage of the disease commences, 
or through the whole of its progress, diarrhoea often prevails, and 
that to a degree which the most powerful astringents cannot 
arrest; and the faeces are, like the other discharges,indicative of 
the putrid form which the disease is now exhibiting. The end 
is even not yet, but the animal clings to life with singular tena¬ 
city. Hectic fever is now established, distinguished by every 
symptom except profuse sweating. There is no cutaneous per¬ 
spiration even now. The skin clin^gs dry and scaly; it strangely 
creaks as the cow crawls staggering along. The discharge from 
the mouth and nostrils increases, and becomes even more fetid; 
the animal w’eaker, and, if possible, thinner; and yet she bears 
up, and eats, and slowly ruminates ; and then, when the vital 
powder is quite exhausted, and even wdth the food in her mouth, 
she falls and dies. One circumstance is very remarkable and 
chai’acteristic. The mind and animal desires even of this com¬ 
paratively dull and insensible being are roused to an extreme 
degree of intensity during the progress of this disease. The cow 
is frequently almost continually at heat. When she is impreg¬ 
nated, the oestrum goes not ofl‘; and the consequence of this con¬ 
tinuance of excitement is, that she is exceedingly subject to 
abortion. 
Long before the farmer suspects it, there is a deterioration in 
the character of the milk, even although the quantity should not 
