The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy managementDadd, George H.
Science
The American Reformed Cattle Doctor: Containing the necessary information for preserving the health and curing the diseases of oxen, cows, sheep, and swine, with a great variety of original recipes, and valuable information in reference to farm and dairy management
Dadd, George H.
Veterinary medicine
_Remarks._--Let us suppose that one, or a combination of the preceding
causes, has operated so as to produce an abnormal state in the system of
a cow. She is then suffered to remain in the unhealthy district during
the night: while there, exposed to the emanations from the soil, she
requires the whole force of her vital energies to ward off chemical
decompositions, and prevent encroachment on the various functions. A
contest commences between the vital force and chemical action, and,
after a hard conflict in their incessant endeavors to overcome each
other, the chemical agency obtains the ascendency, and disease of a
putrid type (milk fever) is the result. The disease may not immediately
be recognized, for the process of decomposition may be insidious; yet
the milk and flesh of such an animal may communicate the disease to man
and other animals. It is well known that almost any part of animal
bodies in a state of putrefaction, such as milk, cheese, muscle, pus,
&c., communicate their own state of decomposition to other bodies. Many
eminent medical men have lost their lives while dissecting, simply by
putrefactive matter coming in contact with a slight wound or puncture.
Dr. Graff made numerous experiments on dogs with the flesh, &c., of
animals having died of milk sickness. He says, "My trials with the
poisoned flesh were, for the most part, made on dogs, which I confined;
and I often watched the effect of the poison when administered at
regular intervals. In the space of forty-eight hours from the
commencement of the administration of either the butter, cheese, or
flesh, I have observed unequivocal appearances of their peculiar action,
while the appetite remains unimpaired until the expiration of the fourth
or fifth day." From the foregoing remarks, the reader will agree with
us, that the disease is of a putrid type, and has a definite character.
What is the reason of this definite character? All diseases are under
the control of the immutable laws of nature. They preserve their
identity in the same manner that races of men preserve theirs. Milk
sickness of the malignant type luxuriates in the locations referred to,
for the same reasons that yellow fever is peculiar to warm climates, and
consumption to cold ones; and that different localities have distinct
diseases; for example, ship fever, jail fever, &c.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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