Disease of the Intestmes 



223 



some of those terrible effects which he had 

 said sometimes accompanied or resulted from 

 colic. For instance, where inflammation of 

 the bowels set in, some of the treatment he 

 had been describing would be very bad, and 

 lie would not use diffusive stimulants. Again, 

 if the animal was getting cold about the 

 surface of the body, and the attacks instead 

 of remaining intermittent became more con- 

 tinuous, he should be careful of purgative 

 medicine, and then, if ever, bleed the horse, 

 and if he thought it was an attack of inflam- 

 mation, bleed largely from the jugular vein, 

 or perhaps from both, for the sooner the 

 effect was produced the better. He would 

 bleed till he found the effect in the pulse. 

 The lecturer reminded them that one of the 

 best preventives of all these diseases was 

 to keep the animals regularly fed and treated ; 

 that was why the army horses enjoyed such 

 good health. He also advised that they 

 should be watered before fed. 



In the course of the discussion, Dr Short- 

 house, who was the principal speaker, con- 

 tested the efficacy of giving a horse water 

 upon an empty stomach — the result, in his 

 opinion, being that it was absorbed by the 

 veins of the stomach or absorbent vessels, 

 and never passed as water into the small in- 

 testines. He defended operations in inter- 

 susception, and condemned the use of 

 " enormous machines " in veterinary science. 

 The statement that oil was passed off by the 

 anus he also disputed, holding that it passed 

 into the intestinal canal where it mixed with 

 the food, circulated in it, and passed off with 

 the urine. He denied that colic was a 

 disease, terming it " simply an involuntary 

 spasmodic action of the muscular texture." 

 Mr J. G. Contrail, another speaker, retaliated 

 upon the Dr, saying that he had never known, 

 a case of recovery from intersusception, and 

 denied the existence of the '^ enormous 

 machines " alluded to. 



FOOT-AND-MOUTH DISEASE IN AUSTRALIA. 



THE dreadful foot-and-mouth disease, 

 says the Australian correspondent of 

 the Times, writing on June 19th, has made 

 its appearance in Victoria. The truth of a 

 rumour that it had broken out among some 

 cattle on a farm at the Werribee, about thirty 

 miles from Melbourne, was ascertained on 

 the 6th inst. by the visit of Mr Vincent, a 

 veterinary surgeon, who had experience of 

 the disease in England. In this country, 

 where flocks and herds roam over wide tracts 

 of unfenced land, and cannot be treated or 

 isolated, it is impossible to over-estimate the 

 dangers of the visitation. Its consequences 

 may be felt beyond Australia, and I forward 

 details, for which space may be given, as of 

 more than local interest. The discovery was 

 at once communicated to the Government, 

 whose inspector, Mr Curr, sent in a report 



on the 8th inst., from which I take the 

 following extracts : — 



On arriving at the farm I was shown by Mr Cobble- 

 dick (the tenant) a young short-homed bull, lately im- 

 ported, and eleven cows, all of which, with one excep- 

 tion, had, he stated, been suffering lately from some 

 disorder. None of the usual symptoms of ill-health 

 attracted my attention. I have no hesitation in 

 stating that there was nothing about their appearance 

 which would have led any one to suppose that they 

 were or had been suffering from any disorder. As 

 regards these cattle, Mr Cobbledick stated to me that 

 five weeks since he had received from his landlord, 

 Mr Staughton, of Exford station, the young im- 

 ported bull then before me ; that about four days after 

 his arrival on the farm he was noticed to be suffering 

 from a sore mouth so as to be incapable of eating, 

 except when food was forced into his mouth beyond 

 the tip of his tongue, which was somewhat raw ; that 

 a week after the arrival of the bull similar symptoms 

 appeared almost simultaneously among ten out of the 

 eleven cows depasturing in the same paddock with him; 



