A sufficient quantity of boiling water to form it into the consistence of thin gruel; a junk bottle full to be given every two hours.

Directions were given to rub the ears and extremities until they were warm, and the strength of the animal to be supported with thin flour gruel.

The indications to be fulfilled were as follows:—

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:—

"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 coöperative,] 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."

FOOTNOTES:

NATURE, TREATMENT, AND CAUSES OF DISEASE IN CATTLE.

The pathology, or doctrine of diseases, is, as we have previously stated, little understood. Many different causes have been assigned for disease, and as many different modes of cure have been advocated. We shall not discuss either the ancient or modern doctrines any further than we conceive they interfere with correct principles. In doing so, we shall endeavor to confine ourselves to truth, reason, and nature.

We entirely discard the popular doctrine that fever and inflammation are disease. We look upon them as simple acts of the constitution—sanative in their nature. Then the reader may ask, "Why do you recommend medicine for them?" We do not. We only prescribe medicine, for the purpose of aiding nature to cure the diseases of which they (the fever and inflammation) are symptoms, and we do not expect to accomplish even that by medicine alone. Ventilation, diet, and exercise, in nine cases out of ten, will do more good than the destructive agents that have hitherto been used, and christened "cattle medicines."

The great secret of curing diseases is, by accurately observing the indications of nature to carry off and cure disease, and by observing by what critical evacuations she does at last cast off the morbid matter which caused them, and so restores health. By thus observing, following, and assisting nature, agreeably to her indications, our practice will always be more satisfactory.

Whenever the great outlets (skin, lungs, and kidneys) of the animal body are obstructed, morbific and excrementitious substances are retained in the system; they irritate, stimulate, and offend nature in such a manner, that she always exerts her power to throw them off. And she acts with great regularity in her endeavors to expel the offending matter, and thus restore the animal to a healthy state.

Suppose an animal to be attacked with disease, and fever supervenes; the whole system is then aroused to cast out this disease: nature invariably points to certain outlets, as the only passages through which the enemy must evacuate the system; and it is the province of the physician to aid in this wise and well-established effort; but when such means are resorted to as in the case of the cow at Waltham, (p. 98,) instead of rendering nature the necessary assistance, her powers and energies are entirely crushed.

Let us suppose a horse to have been exercised; during that exercise, there is a determination of heat and fluids to the surface: the pores of the skin expand and permit the fluids to make their exit: now, if the horse is put into a cold stable, evaporation commences, leaving the surface cold and the pores constricted, so that, after the circulating system has rested a while, it commences a strong action again, to throw off the remaining fluids that were thus suddenly arrested; there is no chance for their escape, as the pores are closed; the skin then becomes dry and harsh, the "coat stares," and the animal has, in common parlance, taken cold, and "it has thrown him into a fever." Now, the cold is the real enemy to be overcome, and the fever should be aided by warmth, moisture, friction, and diffusables. If, at this stage, the cold is removed, the fever will disappear; but if the disease (the cold) has been allowed to advance until a general derangement or sympathetic action is set up, and there is an accumulation of morbific matter in the system, then the restorative process must be more powerful and energetic; constantly bearing in mind that we must assist nature in her endeavors to throw off whatever is the cause of her infirmities. Instead of attacking the disease with the lancet and poison,—which is on the principle of killing the horse to cure the fever,—we should use remedies that are favorable to life. It matters not what organs are affected; the means and processes are the same, and therefore the division of inflammation and fever into a great number of parts designated by as many names, and indicated by twenty times as many complications of symptoms which may never be present, only serve to bewilder the practitioner, and render his practice ineffectual.

PLEURO-PNEUMONIA.

As very little is, at present, known of the nature of this disease, we give the reader the views of Mr. Dun, who received the gold medal offered by the Agricultural Society for the best essay on this subject.

"The causes of the disease, both immediate and remote, are subjects full of interest and importance; and a knowledge of them not only aids in the prevention of disease, but also leads the practitioner to form a more correct prognosis, and to pursue the most approved course of treatment. It is, however, unfortunate that the causes of pleuro-pneumonia have not as yet been satisfactorily explained. No department of the history of the disease is less understood, or more involved in doubt and obscurity. But in this respect pleuro-pneumonia is not peculiar: it is but one of an extensive class which embraces most epidemic and epizoötic diseases. And if the causes which produce influenza, fevers, and cholera, were clearly explained, those which produce pleuro-pneumonia would, in all probability, be easy of solution.

"Viewing the wide-spread and similar effects of pleuro-pneumonia, we may surmise that they are referable to some common cause. And although much difference of opinion exists upon this subject, it cannot be denied that contagion is a most active cause in the diffusion of the disease. Indeed, a due consideration of the history and spread of pleuro-pneumonia over all parts of the land will be sufficient to show that, in certain stages of the disease, it possesses the power of infecting animals apparently in a sound and healthy condition, and otherwise unexposed to the action of any exciting cause. The peculiarity of the progress of this disease, from the time that it first appeared in England, is of itself no small evidence of its contagious nature. Its slow and gradual progress is eminently characteristic of diffusion by contagion; and not only were the earlier cases which occurred in this island distinctly proved to have arisen from contact with the Irish droves, but also subsequent cases, even up to the present day, show numerous examples in which contagion is clearly and unequivocally traceable.... Although pleuro-pneumonia is not produced by the action of anyone of these circumstances alone, [referring to noxious effluvia, &c.,] yet many of them must be considered as predisposing to the disease; and although not its immediate exciting causes, yet, by depressing the physical powers, they render the system more liable to disease, and less able to withstand its assaults. Deficient ventilation, filth, insufficient and bad food, may indeed predispose to the disease, concentrate the animal effluvia, and become the matrix and nidus of the organic poison; but still, not one, alone, of these circumstances, or even all of them combined, can produce the disease in question. There must be the subtle poison to call them into operation, the specific influence to generate the disease."

"On the other hand, it appears probable that the exciting cause, whether it be contagion, or whatever else, cannot, of itself, generate the disease; but that certain conditions or predisposing causes are necessary to its existence, and without which its specific effects cannot be produced. But although these remote or predisposing causes are very numerous, they are often difficult of detection; nay, it is sometimes impossible to tell to what the disease is referable, or upon what weak point the exciting cause has fixed itself. A source of perplexity results from the fact.... The predisposing causes of the disease admit of many divisions and subdivisions; they may, however, be considered under two general heads—hereditary and acquired.

"With reference to the former, we know that good points and properties of an animal are transmitted from one generation to another; so also are faults, and the tendencies to particular diseases. As in the same families there is a similarity of external form, so is there also an internal likeness, which accounts for the common nature of their constitution, modified, however, by difference of age, sex, &c.

"Among the acquired predisposing causes of pleuro-pneumonia may be enumerated general debility, local weakness, resulting from previous disease, irritants and stimulants, exposure to cold, damp or sudden changes of temperature, the want of cleanliness, the breathing of an atmosphere vitiated by the decomposition of animal or vegetable matters, or laden with any other impurity. In short, under this head may be included every thing which tends to lower the health and vigor of the system, and consequently to increase the susceptibility to disease.

"The primary symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia are generally obscure, and too often excite but little attention or anxiety. As the disease steals on, the animal becomes dull and dejected, and, if in the field, separates itself from its fellows. It becomes uneasy, ceases to ruminate, and the respirations are a little hurried. If it be a milk-cow, the lacteal secretion is diminished, and the udder is hot and tender. The eyes are dull, the head is lowered, nose protruded, and the nostrils expanded. The urine generally becomes scanty and high-colored. It is seldom thought that much is the matter with the animal until it ceases to eat; but this criterion does not hold good in most cases of the disease, for the animal at the outset still takes its food, and continues to do so until the blood becomes impoverished and poisoned; it is then that the system becomes deranged, the digestive process impaired, and fever established. The skin adheres to the ribs, and there is tenderness along the spine. Manipulation of the trachea, and percussion applied to the sides, causes the animal to evince pain. Although the beast may have been ill only three days, the number of pulsations are generally about seventy per minute; but they are sometimes eighty, and even more. In the first stage, the artery under the jaw feels full and large; but as the disease runs on, the pulse rapidly becomes smaller, quicker, and more oppressed. The breathing is labored, and goes on accelerating as the local inflammation increases. The fore extremities are planted wide apart, with the elbows turned out in order to arch the ribs, and form fixed points for the action of those muscles which the animal brings into operation to assist the respiratory process. In pleuro-pneumonia, the hot stage of fever is never of long duration, [simply because there is not enough vitality in the system to keep up a continued fever.] The state of collapse quickly ensues, when the surface heat again decreases, and the pulse becomes small and less distinct. We have now that low typhoid fever so much to be dreaded, and which characterizes the disease in common with epizoötics.

" ... The horse laboring under pleuro-pneumonia, or, indeed, any pulmonary disease, will not lie down; but, in the same circumstances, cattle do so as readily as in health. They do not, however, lie upon their side, but couch upon the sternum, which is broad and flat, and covered by a quantity of fibro-cellular substance, which serves as a cushion; while the articulation between the lower extremities of the ribs admits of lateral expansion of the chest. In this position cattle generally lie towards the side principally affected, thus relieving the sounder side, and enabling it to act more freely. There is sometimes a shivering and general tremor, which may exist throughout the whole course of the disease. (This is owing to a loss of equilibrium between the nerves of nutrition and the circulation.) ... As the case advances in severity, and runs on to an unfavorable termination, the pulse loses its strength and becomes quicker. Respiration is in most cases attended by a grunt at the commencement of expiration—a symptom, however, not observable in the horse. The expired air is cold, and of a noisome odor. The animal crouches. There is sometimes an apparent knuckling over at the fetlocks, caused by pain in the joints. This symptom is mostly observable in cases when the pleura and pericardium are affected. The animal grinds its teeth. The appetite has now entirely failed, and the emaciation becomes extreme. The muscles, especially those employed in respiration, become wasted; the belly is tucked, and the flanks heave; the oppressive uneasiness is excessive; the strength fails, under the convulsive efforts attendant upon respiration, and the poor animal dies.

"In using means to prevent the occurrence of the disease, we should endeavor to maintain in a sound and healthy tone the physical powers of the stock, and to avoid whatever tends to depress the vital force. Exposure to the influence of contagion [and infection] must be guarded against, and, on the appearance of the disease, every precaution must be used to prevent the healthy having communication with the sick. By a steady pursuance, on the part of the stock proprietor, of these precautionary measures, and by the exercise of care, prudence, and attention, the virulence of the disease will, we are sure, be much abated, and its progress checked."

As the reader could not be benefited by our detailing the system of medication pursued in England,—at least we should judge not, when we take into consideration the great loss that attends their best efforts,—we shall therefore proceed to inform the reader what the treatment ought to be in the different stages of the disease.

General Indication of Cure in Pleuro-Pneumonia.—Restore the suppressed evacuations, or the secretions and excretions, if they are obstructed.

If bronchial irritation or a cough be present, shield and defend the mucous surfaces from irritation. Relieve congestions by equalizing the circulation. Support the powers of the system. Relieve all urgent symptoms.

Special Practice.—Suppose a cow to be attacked with a slight cough. She appears dull, and is off her feed; pulse full, and bowels constipated; and she is evidently out of condition.

Then the medicines should be anti-spasmodic and relaxant, tonic, diaphoretic, and lubricating.

The following is a good example:—

After straining the hyssop tea, mix with it the other ingredients, and give a quart every two hours.

In the mean time, administer the following injection:—

When cool, inject.

Particular attention must be paid to the general surface, If the surface and the extremities are cold, then employ friction, warmth, and moisture. The animal must be in a comfortable barn, neither too hot nor too cold; if it be imperfectly ventilated, the atmosphere may be improved by stirring a red-hot iron in vinegar or pyroligneous acid, or by pouring either of these articles on heated bricks. The strength is to be supported, provided the animal be in poor condition, with gruel, made of flour and shorts, equal parts; but, as it frequently happens (in this country) that animals in good flesh are attacked, in such case food would be inadmissible.

Suppose the animal to have been at pasture, and she is not observed to be "ailing" until rumination is suspended. She then droops her head, and has a cough, accompanied with difficult breathing, weakness in the legs, and sore throat. Then, in addition to warmth, moisture, and friction, as already directed, apply to the joints and throat the following:

The throat being sore, the part should be rubbed gently. The joints may be rubbed with energy for several minutes. The liquid must not be applied too hot.

After standing for the space of one hour, strain; then add a gill of honey and an ounce of powdered licorice or slippery elm. Give a quart every four hours.

Should the cough be troublesome, give

Give the whole at a dose, and repeat as occasion may require. A second dose, however, should not be given until twelve hours have elapsed.

Injections must not be overlooked, for several important indications can be fulfilled by them. (For the different forms, see Appendix.)

If the disease has assumed a typhus form, then the indications will be,—

First. To equalize the circulation and nervous system, and maintain that equilibrium. This is done by giving the following:—

Put the whole of the ingredients into a gallon of water; boil for five minutes; and, when cool, strain; sweeten with a small quantity of honey; then give a quart every two hours.

The next indication is, to counteract the tendency to putrescence. This may be done by causing the animal to inhale the fumes of pyroligneous acid, and by the internal use of bayberry bark. They are both termed antiseptics. The usual method of generating vapor for inhalation is, by first covering the animal's head with a horse-cloth, the corners of which are suffered to fall below the animal's nose, and held by assistants in such a manner as to prevent, as much as possible, the escape of the vapor. A hot brick is then to be grasped in a pair of tongs, and held about a foot beneath the nose. An assistant then pours the acid, (very gradually,) on the brick. Half a pint of acid will be sufficient for one steaming, provided it be used with discretion; for if too much is poured on the brick at once, the temperature will be too rapidly lowered.

In reference to the internal use of bayberry, it may be well to remark, that it is a powerful astringent and antiseptic, and should always be combined with relaxing, lubricating medicines. Such are licorice and slippery elm.

The following may be given as a safe and efficient antiseptic drink:—

Mix. Give a quart every two hours.

The diet should consist of flour gruel and boiled carrots. Boiled carrots may be allowed (provided the animal will eat them) during the whole stage of the malady.

The object of these examples of special practice is to direct the mind of the farmer at once to something that will answer a given purpose, without presuming to say that it is the best in the world for that purpose. The reader will find in our materia medica a number of articles that will fulfil the same indications just as well.

LOCKED-JAW.

Mr. Youatt says, "Working cattle are most subject to locked-jaw, because they may be pricked in shoeing; and because, after a hard day's work, and covered with perspiration, they are sometimes turned out to graze during a wet or cold night. Over-driving is not an uncommon cause of locked-jaw in cattle. The drovers, from long experience, calculate the average mortality among a drove of cattle in their journey from the north to the southern markets; and at the head of the list of diseases, and with the greatest number of victims, stands 'locked-jaw,' especially if the principal drover is long absent from his charge."

The treatment of locked-jaw, both in horses and cattle, has, hitherto, been notoriously unsuccessful. This is not to be wondered at when we take into consideration the destructive character of the treatment.

"Take," says Mr. Youatt, "twenty-four pounds of blood from the animal; or bleed him almost to fainting.... Give him Epsom salts in pound and a half doses (!) until it operates. Purging being established, an attempt must be made to allay the irritation of the nervous system by means of sedatives; and the best drug is opium.[8] The dose should be a drachm three times a day. [One fortieth part of the quantity here recommended to be given in one day would kill a strong man who was not addicted to its use.] At the same time, the action of the bowels must be kept up by Epsom salts, or common salt, or sulphur, and the proportion of the purgative and the sedative must be so managed, that the constitution shall be under the influence of both.[9] A seton of black hellebore root may be of service. It frequently produces a great deal of swelling and inflammation.[10] ... If the disease terminates successfully, the beast will be left sadly out of condition, and he will not thrive very rapidly. He must, however, be got into fair plight, as prudence will allow, and then sold; for he will rarely stand much work afterwards, or carry any great quantity of flesh." The same happens to us poor mortals when we have been dosed secundum artem. We resemble walking skeletons.

Our own opinion of the disease is, that it is one of nervous origin, and that the tonic spasm, always present in the muscles of voluntary motion, is only symptomatic of derangement in the great, living electro-galvanic battery, (the brain and spinal cord,) or in some of its wires (nerves) of communication.

Mr. Percival says, "Tetanus consists, in a spasmodic contraction, more or less general, of the muscles of voluntary motion, and especially of those that move the lower jaw; hence the vulgar name of it, locked-jaw, and the technical one of trismus."

In order to make ourselves clearly understood, and furnish the reader with proper materials for him to prosecute his inquiries with success, a few remarks on the origin of muscular motion seem to be absolutely necessary.

It is generally understood by medical men, and taught in the schools, that there are in the animal economy four distinct systems of nerves.

1st system. This consists of the sensitive nerves, which are distributed to all parts of the animal economy endowed with feeling; and all external impulses are reflected to the medulla oblongata, &c. (See Dadd's work on the Horse, p. 127.) In short, these nerves are the media through which the animal gets all his knowledge of external relations.

2d system. The motive. These proceed from nearly the same centre of perception, and distribute themselves to all the muscles of voluntary motion. It is evident that the muscle itself cannot perform its office without the aid of the nerves, (electric wires;) for it has been proved by experiment on the living animal, that when the posterior columns of nervous matter, which pass down from the brain towards the tail, are severed, then all voluntary motion ceases. Motion may, however, continue; but it can only be compared to a ship at sea without a rudder, having nothing to direct its course. It follows, then, that if the nerves of motion and sensation are severed, there is no communication between the parts to which they are distributed and the brain. And the part, if its nutritive function be also paralyzed, will finally become as insensible as a stone—wither and die.

3d system. The respiratory. These are under the control of the will only through the superior power, as manifested by the motive nerves. For the animal will breathe whether it wishes to or not, as long as the vital spark burns.

4th system. The sympathetic, sometimes called nutritive nerves. They are distributed to all the organs of digestion, absorption, circulation, and secretion. These four nervous structures, or systems, must all be in a physiological state, in order to carry on, with unerring certainty, their different functions. If they are injured or diseased, then the perceptions of external relations are but imperfectly conveyed to the mind. (Brutes have a mind.) On the other hand, if the brain, or its appendages, spinal marrow, &c., be in a pathological state, then the manifestations of mind or will are but imperfectly represented. Now, it is evident to every reasonable man, that the nerves may become diseased from various causes; and this explains the reason why locked-jaw sometimes sets in without any apparent cause. The medical world have then agreed to call it idiopathic. This term only serves to bewilder us, and fails to throw the least light on the nature of the malady, or its causes. Many men ridicule the idea of the nerves being diseased, just because alterations in their structure are not evident to the senses. We cannot see the atoms of water, nor even the myriads of living beings abounding in single drop of water! yet no one doubts that water contains many substances imperceptible to the naked eye. We know that epizoötic diseases are wafted, by the winds, from one part of the world to another; yet none of us have ever seen the specific virus. Can any man doubt its existence?

Hence it appears that diseases may exist in delicately-organized filaments, without the cognizance of our external perceptions.

It is further manifest that locked-jaw is only symptomatic of diseased nervous structures, and that a pathological state of the nervous filaments may be brought about independent of a prick of a nail, or direct injury to a nerve.

Hence, instead of tetanus consisting "in a spasmodic contraction of the muscles of voluntary motion," it consists in a deranged state of the nervous system; and the contracted state of the muscles is only symptomatic of such derangement. Then what sense is there in blistering, bleeding, and inserting setons in the dewlap? Of what use is it to treat symptoms? Suppose a man to be attacked with hepatitis, (inflammation of the liver:) he has a pain in the right shoulder. Suppose the physician prescribes a plaster for the latter, without ascertaining the real cause, or perhaps not knowing of its existence. We should then say that the doctor only treated symptoms. "And he who treats symptoms never cures disease." Suppose locked-jaw to have supervened from an attack of acute indigestion: would it not be more rational to restore the lost function?

Suppose locked-jaw to have set in from irritating causes, such as bots in the stomach, worms in the intestines, &c.: would bleeding remove them? would it not render the system less capable of recovering its physiological equilibrium, and resisting the irritation produced by these animals on the delicate nervous tissues?

Suppose, as Mr. Youatt says, that locked-jaw sets in "after turning the animal out to graze during a cold night:" will a blister to the spine, or a seton in the dewlap, restore the lost function of the skin?

In short, would it not be more rational, in cases of locked-jaw, to endeavor to restore the healthy action of all the functions, instead of depressing them with the agents referred to?

Then the question arises, What are the indications to be fulfilled?

First. Restore the lost function.

Secondly. Equalize the circulation, and maintain an equilibrium between nervous and arterial action.

Thirdly. Support the powers of life.

Fourthly. If locked-jaw arise from a wound, then apply suitable remedial agents to the part, and rescue the nervous system from a pathological state.

To fulfil the fourth indication, we commence the treatment as follows:—

Suppose the foot to have been pricked or wounded. We make an examination of the part, and remove all extraneous matter. The following poultice must then be applied: