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THREE FATAL CASES OF PUERPERAL FEVER. 
VetEHIN ARIUS. 
[The writer of this Essay is well known to us, and is a good man 
and true, otherwise we do not like these anonymous contribu¬ 
tions. There are many practitioners in the country who would 
give a better answer to his queries than we can. 0\xx friend 
at Walsall could easily resolve the difficulty.—Y.] 
I BEG to transmit three fatal cases of puerperal fever in cows, 
which occurred in my practice, according to their respective 
dates, owing to the want of constitutional energy to withstand 
the disorder until the bowels were acted upon. I should wish 
to know, in these extreme cases, what plan you would pursue in 
order to excite the bowels to action, as, according to your opinion, 
and that of the majority of the gentlemen who were present at 
the meetings of the Veterinary Medical Association in June last, 
when Mr. Dauber read an Essay on Puerperal Fever, the bowels 
were to be freely evacuated. Now, I consider, after the cow is 
down, you will find it not such an easy matter to purge as some 
of those gentlemen seemed to think, for, in the subjoined cases, 
the paralysis was not partial—or, in other words, the hind parts 
only affected—but the whole system seemed to me to be included. 
As none of them seemed to speak of powerful external stimu¬ 
lants, I venture to hint that, if the actual cautery were employed 
to the abdomen in some extreme cases, beneficial effects might 
accrue therefrom, as, by exciting an intense inflammation ex¬ 
ternally, you would lessen the inflammation so frequently found 
in the brain and spinal cord. This is a plan which I have not 
yet tried, but, in my next case, I certainly will, and you shall 
hear of the result. 
CASE 1. 
On February 12th, 1838, at midnight, my attendance was re¬ 
quired on a cow that had calved about two hours previously. 
Owing to the severity of the frost and snow, I was obliged to 
walk—it w'as a distance of two miles—but, notwithstanding 
this, I saw my patient about half past twelve. When I arrived 
she was down, heaving a little at the flanks, with a full, hard 
pulse, about 60, and having, seemingly, lost all power in both 
her fore and hind extremities. I bled her until the system was 
affected, and then administered the following purge in warm 
gruel:—R magn. sulph. Ihj, croton farinae, gr. xv, sem. carui et 
pulv. zingib. aa 3 ij. I also applied a mustard cataplasm with 
