A 18th
century description of mastitis can be found in the Prize essay of the German Prediger (clergyman, vicar) C.G.Schmundt, of Werder. The full title
of this essay (about 100 pages) was:
Preisschrift,
eine Beantwortung
einer
von der freyen
ökonomischen Gesellschaft
zu St.Petersburg
aufgegebenen Frage
betreffend die Fütterung und Pflege
der milchenden Kühe,
welche
von derselben das
Acceßit erhalten;
herausgegeben und mit
Anmerkungen vermehret von dem Verfasser derselben,
C. G. Schmundt,
Prediger zu Werder bey
Rupvin, korrespondirenden Mitglied der Churfürst'l. Sachs, ökonomischen
Sozietät zu Leipzig.
Berlin, 1787.
Bey Christian Friedrich Himburg.
Which may
be translated as:
Prize
essay, an answer to the the question given by the Free Economic Society of St.
Petersburg, considering the nutrition and care of dairy cows by which an admission to it was obtained,
edited and provided with commentaries by the author, C.G.Schmundt, clergyman at
Werder near Rupvin, corresponding member of the Electoral Saxon Economic
Society at Leipzig.
It was not
unusual in those days that clergymen were involved in scientific activities.
Friends and protectors of Darwin
were vicars of the Anglican Church but also professors of the universities, and
Darwin himself studied theology for some time, expecting to be a vicar himself
later, until he was going on a journey with the Beagle.
Here is our
clergyman-agriculturist (he also co-authored a prize essay on the cultivation
of flax) mister Schmundt. After a long introduction that reads as a sermon
given from a pulpit, he explained what is the aim of the essay: “ What kinds
of feeds in summer als well as in winter, and what treatments and what kinds of
care in general are of service in Russia’s area from the 56th grade
up to the 60th inclusive, with the aim that these cows may give more
milk and more fatty milk than usual; without these feeds and these means of
raising milk production equaling, let alone raising, the costs with unaffected gains?”
In an essay
like this much attention is given to the post
partum period. Schmundt states that is is not very wise to separate the
calves from the mother immediately after calving; it is better for the calf to
stay with the mother for some days (8 days seems to be the optimum time) and
for the mother it is better, because “The impure comes out of the mother with
difficulty: many cows grow and hold it to themselves, and from this a strong
swelling and inflammation may develop easily.” The suckling of the calf is much
more effective in removing milk (and impurities) from the udder than milking by
hand.
Some cows
do not tolerate the suckling of their calves, which must be ascribed to a
failure (Fehler) in the udder. Mostly
these are indurations and swellings and tough material that obstruct the
openings of the teats; or they are wounds of the teats which may give rise to
blood in the milk. It has been believed that such cows give pure blood instead
of milk. The only thing you can do is wash the udder with lukewarm vinegar in
which a little bit of butter has been molten. (the text dealing with mastitis
and calves is on pages 25 and 26)
The author
associates mastitis with milk upheld in the udder, which was the common
etiological standpoint for the disease during the first half of the 19th
century.
