SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 311 
lated portion, scab over and heal almost at once without further 
inconvenience. In the greater number of cases, however, 
swelling of the end of the stump sets in (and so long as it 
remains warm, no anxiety need be entertained), followed by sup¬ 
purative process and the throwing off of a small portion of the 
tail. This process, I have said, is not to be feared; neither is 
the formation of abscess higher up, so long as it is confined to 
the tail. All the local treatment necessary is fomentation 
twice or thrice a day with carbolised water, and the dipping of 
the end of the tail in a strong solution of carbolic acid—the 
latter always after milking. A large percentage of the cases 
heal up by the end of the fourth, fifth or sixth week ; but very 
few extend beyond these periods, unless abscess has formed at 
the root of the tail. I must point out that this is not ordinary 
abscess, but is owing to the localisation in the part of the pecu¬ 
liar inflammation induced by inoculation, to the formation of 
exudate in a firm solid mass, and to its subsequent partial lique¬ 
faction, when softening and pointing of the skin take place. 
I have said that the abscess following exudate deposit at the 
root of the tail occurs occasionally as an ordinary sequel of 
inoculation; but more often it is the result of a kick when the 
animal is lying, or a blow with a milking stool or stable fork, 
either of which, I regret to say, is much too frequently adminis¬ 
tered. When the result of external injury, the swelling is 
usually on either side of the tail, over the ischiatic prominences, 
on the butt of the tail, or the quarter ; I have also seen it on the 
ribs, the shoulder, and front of the sternum, in which situation 
the provocative is a bruise in lying down, or against the trevis 
post or feeding trough. So long as abscess forms there is no 
danger to be apprehended; but if, instead of abscess, you get 
extension of the exudate, loss of appetite, and symptomatic fever, 
the case becomes a grave one, and the animal had better be 
slaughtered. In like manner should she be treated when the 
urino-genital organs and regions become similarly affected from 
extension of the exudate from neighbouring parts. The condition 
presented by a cow in the latter circumstances is so painful that 
we may congratulate ourselves it is not of very frequent occur¬ 
rence ; and I am satisfied that experience will do much in the way 
of rendering it less frequent. 
Scarification to give relief to the exudate has been recom¬ 
mended by the Australian authorities, but my experience does 
not bear out its practice ; on the contrary, the one thing that 
affords relief is constant fomentation with water almost too hot 
to bear and strongly carbolised. 
Males, young stock, and calves, I find from experience, can be 
inoculated with little or no risk, in Australia the per-centage of 
death and casualty being lately given as low as 2 per cent. 
During last season, I inoculated only about thirty bullocks, but 
I did a considerable number of calves in different infected places, 
and with the best possible result—-no casualty, and as yet perfect 
m, 
