526 
J. SCHMIDT. 
mention here, because it follows that the lacteal cells can be in¬ 
fluenced by thermal variations. 
I must further add to the exciting causes mentioned the I 
agency of too early or too intense milking, by which the fiinc- i 
tions of the udder are greatly excited. I 
I have likewise had the good fortune to have my attention directed to the 
quesUon whether the cows yielding milk richer or poorer in fat have a special ' 
predisposition to n.ilk fever. In case of patients Nos. lo, 14, 27 and 38, notes I 
will be found showing the quantity of butter fat in the milk. Also P. A. Mor- ! 
kerberg has been so kind as to furnish me with the following data, on the pro- ! 
portion of fat contained in the milk of a cow in a dairy establishment in the : 
island of Fuhnen. The milk from this cow yielded in 1893 3.37 per cent, and i 
in 1896 4.04 per cent, of butter fat. On the 17th of. December, 1895, the milk 
contained 3.40 per cent, fat, and in the first two months after the advent of the i 
disease it had become very fat; thus it contained, for example, on the 21st of i 
March, 4.87 per cent, and on 24th April 5.63 per cent.; but after that it gradu¬ 
ally decreased. What rule, if any at all, the richness in butter fat plays in the 
predisposition to the disease must be determined by further observations. 
When the toxin formed in the udder is taken up into the 
blood it circulates throughout the body in it, and acts, as in : 
over-eating and like the poisonous substance developed by i 
haenioglobinuria especially upon the central organs of the ner¬ 
vous system and the muscular system and through these, upon ' 
the functional powers of various organs. The toxin, as it is 
formed, is gradually neutralized and expelled probably in sev- ‘ 
eral of the organs of the body. It can also probably become 
partly neutralized, like the poisonous substance of overgorging, 
by entering the general blood current and passing gradually 
through the arteries of the digestive organs and their capillary ' 
net-work are forced to the portal vein and liver. A part of the 
toxin will, perhaps, be expelled also by the milk glands them¬ 
selves, without gaining access to the organism, as it is indeed 
well known that cows, which are giving milk, are on account 
of the milk secretion more resistant against various poisons, ! 
than other animals. But what is excreted in this way cannot 
be greater in quantity than that which the digestive organs of ■ 
the calf are in a position to neutralize. It is observed now and 
then that new born calves are fed on such milk, without suffer- 
ing therefrom. 
