526 
J. W. CORRIGAN. 
Although the reports do not show the relative value of 
treatment early in the disease and late in the disease, for some 
cows treated early promptly died, while others treated as late 
as 24 hours, got well ; yet it is fair to conclude that the earlier 
. the treatment is instituted the more likely it is that the cow 
will recover. 
In the event that the cow suffers from tympanites during 
the attack of parturient paralysis, resort must be had to punc¬ 
ture of the rumen with the trocar. Some veterinarians have 
administered medicine through the canula after the puncture 
has been made and the gases evacuated. 'This procedure is 
doubtless as useful as it is unique. 
With 76.5 per cent, of cures to the credit of the Schmidt 
treatment in the hands of the general practitioner in Iowa, who 
is called upon to treat these cases under all sorts of adverse cir¬ 
cumstances, it only remains to advise that this treatment be 
promptly resorted to in all cases of parturient paresis. If it is 
not infallible it is at least the best form of treatment for this 
malady that has thus far been introduced. 
It is also to be expected that as veterinarians acquire more 
practice in its application they will be able to apply it better 
and with a greater degree of success. 
IMPORTANCE OF RECTAL EXPLORATIONS AND MA¬ 
NIPULATIONS. 
ByJ. W. Corrigan, D. V. M., Batavia, N. Y. 
Paper read before the New York State Veterinary Medical Society, Sept. 10, 1901. 
We have looked at this part of the alimentary canal as a 
channel merely used to excrete waste matters no longer needed 
by the organism, but there are other functions of very great im¬ 
portance to us in our practice of veterinary medicine and sun 
gery. 
Briefly the anatomical relations of the rectum are: Superi¬ 
orly to the sacrum ; inferiorly to the bladder, vas deferentia, vesi- 
culse seminales, Cowper’s and prostate glands in the horse ; in 
