wool makes the shears clip smoothly. They are sharped by a whetstone. If the spring of the shears is too powerful for the hand, a piece of string tied round its handle will give considerable ease. A good shearer will shear a score of sheep and upwards every day, according to the size of the animal. A mark is put on the new-shorn body, in order to facilitate the separation of the different classes of sheep on the farm. Sheap-shearing is a warm, laborious, and dirty work. It is customary at that time to supply the shearers with good meat and drink, and, when speedy and neat-handed, they are deserving of a reward of that kind.

ON THE DISEASE IN THE UDDER OF cows. By Mr DICK, Veterinary Surgeon, Edinburgh.

THE diseases of the lower animals, like those of man, frequently produce effects in the body which medicines cannot remedy, and which often prove a source of irritation and disease in other parts of the system, which nothing but the complete removal of the primary diseased part will prevent. With this view, the most formidable operations have been performed on the human body, as the means of assuaging pain and prolonging life; but as animals are in general useless, unless perfect in all their members, many of these operations are not performed on them. The following case, however, is one of some importance, because the disease for which it was performed is not of uncommon occurrence, and by it the animal was restored to health, and although not fit for one purpose, became quite so for another.

On the 1st of March last, I received a letter from Mr Andrew Bowie, veterinary surgeon, Hawick, in which he states, that, having been requested to attend a cow, in July last, belonging to a neighbouring farmer, he "found her labouring under extensive disease of the udder, which had arisen three weeks after she had been allowed to go yeld, and was turned to grass." Her health and condition had rapidly declined, and, when he saw her, her udder had assumed a very hard state, and she was unable to rise. As the owner had given up all hopes of her re

covery, he was told to try any experiment he thought proper, and therefore resolved to make an amputation of the udder. The operation succeeded, the wound healed rapidly, and she is now fit for the butcher. From the success attending the above operation, it may be of importance to point out the manner of performing it; but as in every case amputation is the last resource, it may be advisable to consider the nature of the diseases of the udder, in order to avert, as far as possible, such an operation.

In proceeding to make this examination, it is necessary in this, and indeed in every case, before we proceed, to inquire into the morbid state of any viscus, to be able to know something with regard to its healthy structure. I shall therefore first observe, that the udder is formed of those large glands which are so well known as the characteristics of a milch cow. The mammæ or lactiferous glands are found throughout a great number of animals, and enable naturalists to form one of their classifications. All animals giving suck are said to belong to the class mammalia. But of all the mammiferous animals, none is so useful to man as the cow. The Author of nature, in the formation of this animal, has provided her with the common organs for the nourishment of her offspring; but it would also appear that she has been destined to fulfil another purpose, and to be the instrument of contributing to supply the wants, or rather to increase, the enjoyments, of the human race. The cow ceases not to yield her milk long after her offspring have been removed, or even although she has never enjoyed their society; nay, she will continue for many months to supply a whole family with animal beverage, while other animals refuse to yield it in a few days after being parted from their young.

- This peculiarity, however, seems to render this animal more liable to disease in the mammiferous glands than others, because the peculiarity exposes them to the capricious interference of the human race. The calf is prevented from unloading the udder of its dam with the regularity which its wants produce, and which the reciprocal sympathy of the dam supplies: This process is then carried into execution by the hands of the dairy-maid; but, unless the labours of the milker are analogous to the sucking of the calf, the udder, as it continues to secrete the milk,

will be apt to become diseased by the overloading of the vessels; and inflammation and all its consequences may follow. Much, therefore, will depend upon regularity in milking, to prevent this disease; but regularity alone is not sufficient: the operation of milking must be properly performed, and, simple as the operation may seem, there is a certain knack in it which is not always acquired by the milker. The dairy-maid must borrow a lesson from the calf, the lamb, or the foal, or indeed from any young animal, before she can perform the operation even of milking scientifically; and this will be explained as we examine the structure of the parts.

The udder of the cow is made up of two principal divisions, which may be again divided into two quarters, each of which parts are made up of small granules, united by cellular membrane, and which have ducts that terminate by successive unions in ducts of considerably larger size, and which ultimately terminate in one common duct, the teat. In this progress, however, it is worthy of remark, that there is some peculiarity of structure which must not be overlooked. These lactiferous ducts do not exactly proceed from smaller to larger ducts by a gradual and regular enlargement, as might be inferred, because it would not have been proper that the secretion of milk should escape as it was formed, and therefore we find an apparatus adapted for the purpose of retaining it for a proper time. I have stated this, because I have alluded to the sympathy which exists between the mother and her offspring. To this there may appear exceptions, but these must be referred to disease, and cannot be allowed to interfere with the natural working of the parts.

This apparatus is to be found both in the external and internal construction of the udder. The teat is a curious structure; it resembles a funnel in shape, and somewhat in office, and it is possessed of a considerable degree of elasticity. It seems formed principally of the cutis with some muscular fibres; and it is covered on the outside by cuticle, like every other part of the body; but the cuticle here not only covers the exterior, but it also turns upwards and lines the inside of the extremity of the teat, as far as it is contracted, where it terminates by a frilled edge, the rest of the interior of the teats and ducts being lined by mucous membrane. But as the udder in most animals is attached in a

pendulous manner to the body, and as the weight of the column of fluid would press with a force which would, in every case, overcome the resistance of the contractions of the extremity, or prove oppressive to the teat, there is, in the internal arrangement of the udder, a provision made to obviate this difficulty.

The various ducts, as they are united, do not become gradually enlarged, so as to admit the ready flow of milk in a continued stream to the teat, but are so arranged as to take off, in a great measure, the extreme pressure to which the teat is exposed. Each main duct, as it enters into another, has a contraction produced, by which a kind of valvular apparatus is formed in such a manner as to become pouches or sacs, capable of retaining the great body of the milk. In consequence of this arrangement, it is necessary that a kind of movement upwards, or lift, should be given to the udder, before the teat is drawn, to force out the milk. By this lift the milk is displaced from these pouches, and escapes into the teat, and is then easily squeezed out; but these contractions assist even this in another manner, because the contraction, or pouches, resist to a certain extent the return of the milk into those sinuses again. It is the contraction I have pointed out which requires the young calf, or foal, or lamb, to jerk up his nose into the udder.

The operation of milking is performed differently in various parts of the country. In some, the dairy-maid dips her hand into a little milk, and, by successively stripping the teat between her fingers and thumb, unloads the udder. This plan, however, is attended with the disadvantage of irritating more or less the teat, and rendering it liable to cracks and chops, which are followed by inflammation, extending to the rest of the quarter. This accounts for the disease occurring more frequently among the cows under the charge of one milker than it does in those under the charge of another, and as this practice is more common in some parts of the country than in others, it also accounts for the disease being more common in these parts. This plan of milking where the irritation is not sufficient to excite the extent of inflammation to which I have alluded, frequently produces a horny thickening of the teat, a consequence of the cracks and chops, which renders it more difficult to milk than when in its natural state, and at the same time predisposes to inflammation,

when any cause occurs to set it up. These effects may be, and is almost entirely, avoided by the more scientific plan of milking adopted in other parts of the country, where, instead of drawing down or stripping the teat between the thumb and fingers, as I have stated, the dairy-maid follows more closely the principles which instinct has taught the calf. She first takes a slight hold of the teat with her hand, by which she merely encircles it; then lifts her hand up, so as to press the body of the udder upwards, by which the milk escapes into the teat, or if (as is generally the case when some hours have elapsed between milking times) the teat is full, she grasps the teat close to its origin with her thumb and fore finger, so as to prevent the milk which is in the teat from escaping upwards; then making the rest of the fingers to close from above downwards in succession, forces out what milk may be contained in the teat through the opening of it. The hand is again pressed up and closed as before, and thus, by repeating this action, the udder is completely emptied, without that coarse tugging and tearing of the teat, which is so apt to produce disease.

From what has been stated regarding its structure, it is evident that a dairy-maid may leave the udder in some measure loaded with milk, if she is not an expert milker; but this, although not a good practice, does less harm than that which arises from improperly allowing the whole milk to accumulate in the udder, as is frequently done when cows are sent to market, with a view of making them appear greater milkers than they really are. The consequence of this hefting, as it is termed, is a distention of the vessels which produce pain, and it is frequently followed by inflammation, which either attacks the glandular structure, or the cellular substance by which it is united. In the first case, the disease generally attacks the whole of one quarter, or it may extend to the half or whole of the udder, and is always sudden in its attacks, rapid in its progress, and dangerous and obstinate in its effects. The quarter or whole of the udder becomes suddenly hot, painful, and hard to the touch; there is a degree of symptomatic fever present; the secretion of milk is partially or completely suspended; and if any is formed, as sometimes occurs in mild cases, the milk is either mixed with curd, is like whey, is bloody, or, instead of either, there is pus; these different states of the secretion vary