1st. To lubricate the mucous surfaces, and defend them from the action
of the drugs.
2d. To arouse the digestive function, and prevent the generation of
carbonic acid gas.
3d. To allay nervous excitement, and remove spasms.
Lastly. To equalize the circulation.
The first indication can be fulfilled by slippery elm and marshmallows;
the second, by caraway seeds; the third, by skullcap; and the fourth, by
grains of paradise.
We have not been able, up to the present time, to ascertain the result.
Here, then, are a few examples of horse and cattle doctoring, which we
might multiply indefinitely, did we think it would benefit the reader.
We ask the reader to ponder on these facts, and then answer the
question, "What do horse and cattle doctors know about the treatment of
disease?"
It gives us much pleasure, however, and probably it will the reader, to
know that a few of the veterinary surgeons of London are just beginning
to see the error of their ways. The following contribution to the
Veterinarian, from the pen of Veterinary Surgeon Haycock, will be read
with interest. The quotations are not complete. We only select those
portions which we deem most instructive to our readers. The disease to
which it alludes, _puerperal fever_, has made, and is at the present
time making, sad havoc among the stock of our cattle-growing interest;
and it stands us in hand to gather honey wherever we can find it. "Of
the various questions which present themselves to traders and owners of
cattle respecting puerperal fever, the following are, perhaps, a few of
the most important: First. At what period of their life are cows the
most liable to be attacked with puerperal fever? Secondly. At what
period after the animal has calved does the disease generally supervene?
Thirdly. What is the average rate of mortality amongst cows attacked
with this disease? Fourthly. What is the best method to pursue with
cattle, in order, if possible, to prevent the disease? Fifthly. What is
the best mode of treatment to be pursued with cattle when so attacked?
To these several questions I shall endeavor to reply as fully as my own
knowledge of the matter will allow me. They are questions which ought to
have been answered years ago; [so they would have been, doctor, if, as
Curtis says, your brethren had not been _progressing in a circle,
instead of direct lines_;] but no one appears to have thought it
necessary. They are questions of great importance to the agriculturist;
if they were fully answered, he would be able to form a pretty accurate
estimate as to the amount of risk he was likely at all times to incur
with respect to puerperal diseases of a febrile nature. For instance,
suppose it was fully ascertained, from data furnished by the correct
observations of a number of practitioners, at what period of the cow's
life the animal is most liable to be attacked with puerperal fever; the
agriculturist and cow-keeper would be able, in a considerable degree, to
guard against it, either by feeding the animal, or taking such other
steps as a like experience proved to be the best. It is of no earthly
use practitioners writing 'grandiloquent' papers upon diseases like
puerperal fever; or in their telling the world, that puerperal fever is
a disease of the nervous system; or that the name which is given to it
is very improper, _and not suggestive; or that bleeding and the
administration of a powerful purgative are proper to commence with_;
together with hosts of stereotyped statements of a like
nature--statements which are unceasingly repeated, and which are without
one jot of sound experience to substantiate them. [All good and sound
doctrine.]
"Question First. _At what period of their lives are cows the most liable
to be attacked with puerperal fever?_ I have in my possession notes and
memoranda of twenty-nine cases of this disease, which notes and
memoranda I have collected from cases I have treated from the month of
July, 1842, to the month of July, 1849--a period of seven years; and
with reference to the above question the figures stand thus: Out of the
twenty-nine, three of them were attacked at the third parturient period,
five ditto at the fourth, sixteen at the fifth, two at the sixth, and
three at the eighth.
"It appears, then, from the above numbers, that cows are the most liable
to puerperal fever at the fifth parturient period--a fact which is
noticed by Mr. Barlow.
"Secondly. _At what period after the animal has calved does the disease
generally supervene?_ With reference to this question, the twenty-nine
cases stand thus:--
5 cows immediately after parturition.
8 " in 20 hours " "
6 " in 23 " " "
5 " in 24 " " "
3 " in 30 " " "
2 " in 36 " " "
1 " in 72 " " "
"It appears, then, from the above, that after the twentieth and
twenty-fourth hours, the animals, comparatively speaking, may be
considered as safe from the disease; and that after the seventy-second
or seventy-third hour, all danger may be considered as past, beyond
doubt.
"Thirdly. _What is the average rate of mortality amongst cows attacked
with this disease?_ Out of the 29 cases, 12, I find, recovered and 17
died; which loss is equivalent to somewhere about 59 per cent.--a loss
which, I am inclined to think, is not so great as that of many other
practitioners. [It will be still less if you reject poison as well as
the lancet.]
"Mr. Cartwright, in the May number of the Veterinarian of the present
year, states that, 'Although I have seen at least a hundred cases,
chiefly in this neighborhood, [Whitchurch,] during the last twenty-five
years, yet I am almost ashamed to confess that I cannot call to
recollection that I ever cured a single case, [neither will you ever
cure one as long as the lancet and poison are cooeperative,] nor have I
ever heard of a case ever being cured by any of the quacks in the
neighborhood.' [Of course not, for the quacks follow in the footsteps of
their prototypes, the _regular_ veterinary surgeons.]
"Fourthly. _What is the best method to pursue with cattle, in order, if
possible, to_ PREVENT _the disease?_ This is a question which I
hope to see amply discussed by veterinarians. I have but little to offer
respecting it myself; but I labor under a kind of feeling that something
valuable may not only be said, but done, by way of prevention. With
reference to preventing the disease, Mr. Barlow, in his Essay, says,
'There is a pretty certain preventive in milking the cow some time
before calving in full _blood-letting_ before or immediately after; in
purgatives, very limited diet, and other depletive measures; each and
all tending to illustrate the necessity of a vascular state of the
system for its development!'"
Mr. Haycock continues: "So far as my own experience is concerned, it is
at variance with almost every one of my observations. In the table which
I have given respecting question 2, the reader will recollect that I
stated that puerperal fever supervened in five cows immediately after
parturition. Now, it is worthy of remark, of these five cases, that
every animal had been milked many hours previous to calving. The full
udder, under such circumstances, is a powerful excitant to the uterus:
this is a well-known fact, and the consequence is, that if this natural
excitant be withdrawn, the action of the process at once becomes
diminished. I have known many cases, in addition to those already given,
where the parturient process was prolonged for hours in consequence of
the animal's being milked, in whom fever supervened almost immediately
afterwards. The prolonged process, I think, greatly weakens the animal,
and, as a natural result, the vital energies become less capable of
maintaining their normal integrity. With reference, again, to bleeding
and purging as preventives, I have nothing to offer in favor of either
mode. I do not believe that they are preventives. [Good, again, doctor:
you are one of the right stripe. It would give us pleasure to see a few
such as you on this side of the water.] First of all, we require to know
what percentage of calving cows are liable to be affected with puerperal
fever; then, whether that percentage becomes reduced in number in
consequence of such preventive measures being brought into force: these
are the only modes whereby the matter can be proved; and, so far as I
know, no one has ever brought the question to such a test. That bleeding
and purging are considered as preventives by people in general, I know
perfectly; but, like many other popular opinions, the thing which is
believed requires first to be proved ere it becomes truth.
"I perfectly agree with Mr. Barlow in recommending spare diet. I regard
it, in fact, as the great preventive.... When I say spare diet, I do not
mean poor diet. The food should be good, but they should not have that
huge bulk of matter which they are capable of devouring, and which they
appear so much to desire. I should commence the process for eight or ten
days prior to calving, or even, with some animals, much earlier; and the
diet I would give should consist of beans, boiled linseed, and boiled
oats, with occasionally small portions of hay. I should not always feed
upon one mixture. I might occasionally substitute boiled barley in place
of oats; and when the time for calving was very near at hand, say within
a day or so, I should become more sparing with my hay, and more copious
with my allowance of bran. With regard to the diet after calving, I
should pursue much the same course I have named: perhaps for the first
thirty hours I might allow the animal nothing but gruel and bran mash,
in which I should mix a little oatmeal, or very thick gruel. I have
sometimes thought--_but hitherto it has not gone beyond a thought with
me_--that a broad cotton or linen bandage, fixed moderately tight round
the cow's body immediately after calving, might prove of some assistance
as a preventive. I have had no experience in its benefit myself; I
merely suggest the thing; and if it did nothing more, it would prevent,
in some measure, the animal from feeling that sensation of vacuity which
must necessarily exist immediately and for some time after calving, and
which, I think, under some conditions of the system, may be injurious to
the animal. I am told by a medical friend of mine, that he has known
puerperal fever produced in women solely from midwives' neglecting to
bandage them after delivery; at any rate, a bandage, or a broad belt
having straps and buckles attached, and placed securely round the cow's
body immediately after calving, and kept there for a day or two, could
do no harm, if it failed of doing good.
"Fifthly. _Which is the best method of treatment to pursue with cows
when attacked with puerperal fever?_ Upon this question I feel that I
could say much; but at present I defer its consideration.... Suffice it
to say, then, that I never either bleed or administer purges. I used
once to do both, but my experience has shown me, in numerous cases, that
neither is necessary.... This malady I have written upon is fearfully
destructive; and if such diseases cannot be met with powers capable of
wrestling with it, I, for one, shall say that it is a stigma upon our
art--I will say that when we are most wanted, we are of the least use."