300 THREE FATAL CASES OF PUERPERAL FEVER. 
in the anticipation of its producing a purgative effect, for I had 
told the owner that there was no chance for the cow unless the 
bowels could be opened. I requested that a person might be 
sent with me for another drench to be given immediately on his 
return, when a messenger in post-haste arrived, requiring my 
attendance on a cow similarly affected, which case I will relate as 
No. 3. I sent eight ounces of castor oil, with a pound of mu¬ 
riate of soda, and ordered the cow to be raked. 
At 3 p.M. she was lying stretched at full length, fast sinking, 
with a viscid foam issuing from the mouth and nostrils. She 
died about 1 a.m. on the 7th, without a struggle, and to the very 
close of the case the bowels were not opened. 
CASE III. 
May Qthy 1838.—I attended, about eight o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing, the cow alluded to in the last case. On my arrival I found 
her down, with the sight of both eyes gone ; the breath intoler¬ 
ably foetid ; complete paralysis of the fore and hind quarters; the 
pulse full and bounding; respiration scarcely hurried; the teeth 
constantly grinding, and the bowels constipated. I bled her to 
about four quarts, and gave her a pound and a half of Epsom 
salts, half a drachm of croton farina, and two drachms each of 
powdered caraway and ginger. I ordered her to be kept warm, 
and frequently drenched with gruel. 
At 2 P.M., the bowels not being opened, I gave her a pound 
of muriate of soda. She was quite unconscious, continually 
tossing about the head, and her eyes sunk in their orbits. At 
7 P.M., the bowels being still confined, I gave the following;— 
Cape aloes, four drachms; Epsom and Glauber’s salts, of each 
four ounces, with two drachms of ginger, in warm gruel. She 
was also raked and clystered with warm soapy water and salt, 
and the clysters were ordered to be repeated every two or three 
hours. The bowels could not be acted on, and she died about 
4 A.M. on the 7th. She had calved on the 5th, without diffi¬ 
culty, and all appeared to be going on well. 
Remarks .—The subjects of the first and second cases were in 
very high order, and had been kept on very stimulating food for 
two or three months previous to calving. The third was not in 
such high condition, but had been kept on the forcing system in 
a field of fine grass, and allowed two or three sheaves of oats per 
day for three months previously. I consider that the digestive 
organs were much affected in these cases, for the barley and 
oats were drawn from the cows when raked, mixed with the 
excrement, just in the same state as when swallowed, which cir¬ 
cumstance is never observed in the faeces of a cow when in a 
state of health. 
