626 
DROPPING AFTER CALVING. 
a very valuable herd of English-bred Jersey cows—twenty- 
five in number—among which parturient apoplexy had pre¬ 
vailed to a most serious extent, the annual losses by death 
averaging not less than 20 per cent. The animals, which 
were the property of a nobleman, were well cared for, and 
never allowed to leave the park in which the ducal mansion 
was situated. Being a so-called self-supporting herd, the 
annual losses were filled up by the bringing in of the in-calf 
heifers. We had full authority to use any means thought 
right for the purpose of preventing the occurrence of the 
disease, and did not fail to make good use of the privilege. 
Hygienic principles were adopted throughout the whole period 
of utero-gestation, and these were added to by the exhibition 
of aperient and other medicinal agents both immediately 
before and after parturition. In selected cases bleeding was 
had recourse to, and, when the state of the mammary glands 
permitted or required, milking before calving was also adopted. 
From the time of the birth of the calf till the expiration of the 
third day a cowman was kept night and day watching the 
animal, ready to take advantage of the slightest appearance 
of ill-health by the exhibition of medicine with which he was 
furnished. As may be supposed, many attacks were avoided 
and more lives were spared, but it w r as a remarkable circum¬ 
stance that, during the five years alluded to, the mortality 
was never reduced below two a year, or 8 per cent, of the 
whole herd. The saving of 12 per cent, was doubtless a 
great gain, but it fnight have been supposed that the disease 
w ould have been entirely annihilated by the precautions which 
were taken. 
Statements of the effective prevention of the disease by 
simply administering aperient medicine within a few days of 
calving, placing the animal on a restricted and less nutritious 
diet, and giving a second dose of aperient medicine directly 
after parturition, are frequently sounded in our ears. Many 
persons speak as if it w r ere an absolute certainty that the cow 
would have dropped had not such measures been adopted. 
It is right to take precautions with every herd; but it must 
be remembered that thousands of cow r s in high condition an¬ 
nually produce their calves, even in districts where the disease 
is common, towards wffiom no measures of prevention are 
adopted, and that they pass through labour unscathed. Put 
these boasted means to the crucial test, as in such herds as 
we have named, and they will unquestionably fail. 
It may be asked—Are w 7 e then to conclude that parturient 
apoplexy is as difficult to prevent as to cure? Certainly 
not; the lives of more cows may, we believe, be saved by the 
