womb, an unhealthy open sore, a case of erysipelas, from overcrowding, from
filthy floor or bedding, or from an offensive accumulation of manure, solid
or liquid. As the microbes vary in different cases, given outbreaks will
differ materially in their nature. One is erysipelatoid; another purulent
infection with the tendency to secondary abscesses in the joints, liver,
lungs, etc.; another is from a septic germ and is associated with fetid
discharge from the navel and general putrid blood poisoning. In estimating
the causes of the disease we must not omit debility of the calf when the
mother has been underfed or badly housed or when either she or the fetus
has been diseased.

_Symptoms._--The symptoms vary. With the chain-form germs (streptococci)
the navel becomes intensely red, with a very firm, painful swelling, ending
abruptly at the edges in sound skin and extending forward along the
umbilical veins. The secondary diseases are circumscribed, black
engorgements (infarctions) or abscesses of the liver, lungs, kidneys,
bowels, or other internal organs, and sometimes disease of the joints.

With the ordinary pus-producing germs (_Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus_ and
_Streptococcus pyogenes_) the local inflammation in the navel causes a hot,
painful swelling, which rapidly advances to the formation of matter (pus),
and the raw, exposed surface, at first bright red, becomes dark red or
black, soft, friable, and pultaceous. If the pus is white, creamy, and
comparatively inoffensive in odor, the secondary formations in internal
organs and joints are mainly of the same purulent character (secondary
abscesses).

If, on the other hand, the discharge is very offensive and the pus more
serous, watery, or bloody, there is reason to suspect the presence of some
of the septic bacteria, and the results on the general system are a high
fever and softening of the liver and spleen and no tendency to abscesses of
the internal organs. Diarrhea is a common symptom, and death ensues early,
the blood after death being found unclotted.

Complicated cases are common, and in all alike the umbilical veins usually
remain open and can be explored by a probe passed at first upward and then
forward toward the liver.

Prevention is sought by applying a lotion of carbolic acid or iodin
solution to the navel string at birth, or it may be smeared with common
wood tar, which is at once antiseptic and a protective covering against
germs. In the abse