Having regard to the causes of parturient fever, too much care cannot be exercised when assisting delivery, in order to avoid injury to the vaginal or uterine membranes by the operator's nails or instruments, such precautions being especially necessary in the removal of a dead foetus, which may be much decomposed yet comparatively harmless while the genital passages remain uninjured and intact. The practice of passing from a post mortem examination to a case of parturition is doubtless responsible for parturient fever in some instances, and no person who has been so engaged for at least twenty-four hours previously should take part in delivering a mare, and then only after a complete change of clothing and thorough cleansing and disinfection of the hands.

No other brood mare should be permitted in the same building with an animal suffering from the disease under consideration, and the most thorough disinfection of the apartment should be undertaken at the earliest opportunity.

To remove or neutralize any septic matters in the uterus will be our first care, and this will be best effected by injections of warm solutions of such agents as carbolic acid, chinosol, lysol, or permanganate of potash in suitable proportions.

Visible wounds in the vagina, incurred in the forcible removal of the foetus, will be dressed with some rather more active agent than that employed for injection; a one-in-ten carbolic acid and olive-oil lotion being found well adapted to the purpose.

As to the administration of remedies intended to act through the medium of the circulation, these will be chosen for their known action as antiseptics and febrifuges, diminishing the power of the poison circulating in the system, and arresting the rapid consumption of tissue which results from continued high temperature. Among the older agents enjoying a reputation in this respect may be mentioned the hyposulphites of soda and potash. Carbolic acid, deprived of its causticity by solution in glycerine and free dilution, holds a mediate position between the before-named drugs and the more recent additions to the pharmacopoeia, as saly-cilic acid and its compounds. Large doses of quinine are perhaps more esteemed among the new school of practitioners than any other medicinal agent for internal administration.

Where constipation is a marked symptom a mild saline aperient may be administered in the form of sulphate of soda, either given as a draught or, better, in the drinking-water. In extreme cases, where a special value has been attached to the animal, intra-venous injection of antiseptics has been practised. In the convalescent stage tonics and a liberal but easily assimilated diet is advised.