Stimulants (ammonia carbonate, alcohol, anise, fennel, ether, nux, etc.) have been largely employed by the mouth and may be by the rectum. In the absence of spasms I have relied largely on nux or strychnia.
When the skin chills, some have sought to heat it by enveloping the posterior half of the body in cotton or wool soaked in turpentine, by applying sinapisms, or by moving over the surface a warming-pan containing red hot charcoal.
More generally cold in the shape of cold water, ice or snow has been applied to the cranium and spine. Theoretically the anæmic brain might be thought to forbid this, but clinically it often operates well, possibly by inducing a sympathetic contraction of the vessels in and around the nerve centres and thus indirectly favoring the resumption of active circulation and the reabsorption of effusions.
An elevated position of the head is no less important. It favors the return of blood from the brain by gravitation, and in this way improves the intracranial circulation, and the resumption of normal function. A halter, or a rope around the horns, may be tied to a beam overhead, or the head may be laid on thick bundles of straw which will keep it up to or above the level of the chest, and in this way not only is gravitation ensured, but the brain is protected against the violent blows and concussions, which come from dashing the head on the ground.
Frequent rubbing of the udder and drawing of the milk, is an excellent means of depletion, a removal of a source of irritation, and presumably an extraction of part of the offending poison. It should never be neglected. But of all known methods of treatment the iodine injection furnishes the greatest hope of success.
Injection of the mammæ with Iodine. Iodide of potassium 100 grains (200 grs. in the case of a very large udder) are dissolved in a quart of water which has been boiled for 15 minutes, the solution cooled to 104° F. and injected in equal parts into the four quarters, which have been just milked out clean. The glands are then manipulated so as to work the solution into all the recesses of the milk tubes and follicles. If the patient does not get on its legs at the end of twelve hours, the glands may be milked out and injected anew. In nearly 2000 cases the recoveries reached an average of nearly 83 per cent. In serious or advanced cases with structural changes of a grave nature, a good result cannot be hoped for. The injection does not forbid the concurrent use of other approved measures.
The injection is easily made with a caoutchouc tube of five feet long fitted to a teat tube at one end and to a funnel at the other. The tube is inserted in the teat, and the funnel at a height of five feet receives the liquid, which readily passes into the teat. When ready to pass the tube from one teat to another, an assistant pinches the caoutchouc tube just below the funnel, until the insertion has been made. Every precaution must be taken against sepsis. The udder, teats and hands, must be washed with soap, and treated with a 3 per cent. solution of lysol. The teat tube and funnel are boiled. The caoutchouc tube is washed and irrigated with a solution of mercuric chloride (1:1000), and then with one of boric acid (3:100).
DISEASES OF THE EYE.
DESIRABLE FEATURES IN THE EYE.
The eye in the physiognomy. Broad forehead. Full eyes. Both eyes alike. Iris smooth, lustrous. Media translucent. Pupil sensitive to light. Convexity median, uniform. Pupil black in ordinary light. Lids open and mobile. Sclera light pink. Tears clear, limpid without overflow. Lids thin, delicate, margins evenly curved. Whole eye responsive to moving objects. Defects: small eye: semi-closed, thick, sluggish lids; convex cornea: sunken eye: projecting eye: weeping eye: blear eye: watch eye: irresponsive iris: dilated pupil: unequal eyes: flat cornea; ovoid cornea.
Much of the expression of the face depends upon the eyes, and in animals as in man it is difficult to find compensations for a forbidding countenance. Perfect, sound, intelligent eyes are always pleasing; imperfect, defective, sunken or lifeless eyes mar the whole expression. The following points may be specially noted: