DISEASES AND REMEDIES. 511 



"Acrid plants are often prejudicial to cattle. 'There is no 

 farmer who is not aware of the injurious effect of the coarse, 

 rank herbage of low, marshy, and woody countries, and he 

 regards these districts as the chosen residence of red- water;' it 

 may be added, that these districts are also the chosen residence 

 of abortion. 



" Hard and mineral waters are justly considered as laying the 

 foundation for many diseases in cattle, and for this among the 

 rest. A writer, in a German periodical, gives the following 

 account: 'In 1822, twelve of his in-calf heifers cast their calves, 

 and in the following year the like accident happened to twelve 

 others, the whole of which used to drink from ponds, the water 

 of which was strongly impregnated with iron. In 1824, ten 

 cows that were watered at other places all calved safely, while a 

 single cow that was allowed to drink of the ferruginous water 

 cast her calf. The same occurred in two following years.' 



"Cows that have been long afflicted with hoose, and that 

 degenerating into consumption, are exceedingly subject to abor- 

 tion. They are continually at heat ; they rarely become preg- 

 nant, or if they do, a great proportion of them cast their calves. 

 When consumption is established, and the cow is much wasted 

 away, she will rarely retain her calf during the natural period 

 of pregnancy. 



"An in-calf beast will scarcely have hoose to any considera- 

 ble extent without afterwards aborting. The pressure of the 

 distended rumen seems to injure or destroy the foetus. Even 

 where the distension of the stomach does not wear a serious 

 character, abortion often follows the sudden change from poor to 

 luxuriant food. Cows that have been out and half starved in 

 the winter, and incautiously turned on rich pasture in the spring, 

 are too apt to cast their calves from the undue general or local 

 excitation that is set up; and, as has been already remarked, a 

 sudden change from rich pasture to a state of comparative star- 



