= 
8 
and the chief reliance placed upon gruel and an 
opiate. —When the symptoms earliest observed 
are indicative of death in the foetus, and espe- 
cially when the fluid discharged by the cow has a 
decidedly offensive smell, abortion may be re- 
garded as inevitable, and should on no account 
be attempted to be hindered, but by every fair 
and possible means be expedited. The cow, if 
much fever exist, ought to be bled: she may 
even, in some cases, receive with advantage ‘the 
comfortable drink’ which cow-leeches so indis- 
criminately administer; and she ought, in all 
other respects, to be treated in the same manner 
as for parturition. The grand difficulty is, not 
with the foetus, but with the placenta or after- 
birth. The foetus, instantly on being obtained, 
ought to be buried deep, in some spot which no 
cow is likely ever to frequent; and the placenta, 
in consequence of being in an unprepared state 
to separate from the womb, and of the proba- 
bility of its being so long retained as to contract 
putridity or corruption, ought to be the subject 
of prompt and sedulous concern. “A dose of 
physic,” says Mr, Youatt, “should be given; the 
ergot of rye should be administered; the hand 
| should be introduced, and an effort made, cau- 
tiously and gently, to detach the placenta: all 
violence, however, should be carefully avoided, 
for considerable and fatal hemorrhage may be 
speedily produced.” Yet, whenever the placenta 
does not easily yield to ordinary appliances, or 
come away in the course of a few hours, or at 
the utmost a day, the farmer will do well to call 
in the aid of a veterinary surgeon. Skellet re- 
commends, as a means of bringing off the placenta, 
to administer to the cow, when fasting, a drink 
containing 3 oz. of juniper berries, 2 oz. of bay 
berries, 1 oz. of saltpetre, 1 0z. of anise seed, 4 
oz. of gentian, 4 oz. of myrrh, 4 oz. of assafoetida, 
1 quart of mild warm ale, and 1 quart of penny- 
royal tea, and to repeat the dose daily till all the 
placenta be evacuated. But such compound and 
intricate drugging wants the simplicity of the 
best veterinary practice; and at all events ought 
scarcely to be practised or imitated by the far- 
mer, in indiscriminate cases, or without compe- 
tent advice. Youatt, immediately after the pas- 
sage which we have already quoted from him, 
says, “The parts of the cow should be well- 
washed with a solution of the chloride of lime ; 
and this should be injected up the vagina, and 
also given internally. In the meantime, and 
especially after the expulsion of the placenta, 
the cow-house should be well-washed with the 
same solution.’— When abortion has once oc- 
curred on a farm, the breeding cows ought, for-a 
year or two, to be watched and treated with un- 
usual care,—they ought to be sedulously pro- 
tected from the various causes by which abor- 
tion is induced,—they ought to be well fed, yet 
not suffered to become fat,—and unless they 
happen to be very lean and weak, they ought, be- 
tween the third and fourth months of every oc- 
ABORTION. | 
casion of pregnancy, to be bled and mildly phys- 
icked, 
Abortion in the Hwe—Abortion in the ewe is 
not so common as abortion in the cow, and sel- 
dom if ever assumes an epizootic appearance ; 
yet it is sufficiently frequent to be a great an- 
noyance, and is sometimes so extensive as to dis- 
arrange all the sheep-owner’s plans, and entail 
upon him very serious pecuniary less. It may 
occur at any stage of pregnancy, but happens 
most frequently about mid-time of gestation. Its 
causes are unusual storminess of the weather, 
the endurance of fatigue in snow, over-driving, 
sudden fright, leaping over hedges or ditches, 
annoyance from the ferocity of dogs, the too free 
use of salt, and, above all, profuse and unquali- 
fied feeding upon turnips and other succulent 
food. The last of these causes, indeed, does not 
always operate, and may often appear to a sheep- | 
farmer to be perfectly innocuous; yet in seasons 
when an abundant vegetation in autumn is fol- 
lowed by an unusual proportion of wet weather 
in winter, it is almost certain to operate with 
great virulence and toa wide extent. Mr. Spooner 
states that, only a spring or two ago, numerous 
instances occurred in Southamptonshire of the 
use of succulent food occasioning abortion in 
ewes ; and he mentions a particular instance of 
a farmer who, at that time, had nearly a hun- 
dred aborted ewes, a good many of which died. 
These ewes, he says, “had been turned on a fine 
field of turnips, and subsisted entirely on them 
and water-meadow hay for some time previous 
to the commencement of the mischief, which be- 
gan soon after Christmas, and continued for sev- 
eral weeks. Though the greater number of ewes 
recovered, yet they suffered much, and some died 
from inflammation of the womb, and others be- 
came paralyzed.” 
The symptoms of approaching abortion in the 
ewe, in consequence of the woolly covering of the 
animal, cannot be so well observed as those in | 
the cow ; yet a listlessness in the creature’s move- 
ments, and a redness under the tail, may excite 
the notice of any ordinary shepherd,—and a loss 
of appetite, an unusual degree of bleating, a mop- 
ing manner of separation from the flock, and oc- 
casionally trembling over the body, slight labour- 
pains, or even the relaxation of the uterus, may 
confirm suspicion when once it is fairly aroused. 
Pregnant ewes ought never to be fed upon a 
turnip field, but ought to be placed upon dry 
pasture-ground, and either abundantly supplied 
with hay, or moderately fed with drawn and car- 
ried turnips, sliced and mixed in troughs with 
Such treatment may | 
chaff or with bruised corn. 
possibly impair their condition, but will at least 
prevent the more serious calamity of their abort- 
ing. The treatment, when abortion actually oc- 
curs, ought to vary with the circumstances of | 
particular cases, and must be, in some degree, | 
similar to that of aborted cows. “If,” says Mr. 
Youatt, “the foetus had been long dead, proved 
— 
