106 THE HOOVE. 



cannot, indeed, extract the food from the stomach by his tube, but he 

 can do that which is almost as beneficial. He attaches to the tube a 

 pump, tliat can in a moment be altered, so as to be used either as a 

 forcing-pump like a little garden-engine, or as a common sucking- 

 pump, and by means of it he can inject as much water into the 

 stomach as he pleases, and draw it out again, and wash away the 

 impurities of the food, and a considerable portion of the food itself; 

 or, by using warm water, and perfectly filling the stomach, he can 

 excitethe act of vomiting, and so get rid of the nuisance at once. 

 This is an admirable contrivance, and no one who has many cattle 

 should be without the pump and tube. Some of these instruments 

 are made on a smaller scale, so as to be adapted for sheep labouring 

 under the same complaint, to which they are as subject as oxen are. 

 Nothing can be better contrived for the administering of injections 

 than these tubes with the pump attached to them. Two or three 

 gallons of fluid can be thrown up in as many minutes. 



After the stomach has been well emptied by these means, it will 

 always be proper to give a cordial drink like that recommended in 

 Recipe 31, p. 79. 



A knowledge of chemistry has been turned to excellent account in 

 the treatment of hoove. The air, or gas, with which the rumen is 

 distended in these cases has been analysed, and found to consist 

 principally of hydrogen, or inflammable air, and in combination either 

 with sulphur or the principle of all plants — carbon or charcoal. Are 

 there any means by which this hydrogen can be removed, or at least 

 made to occupy less space, and the distension of the stomach be 

 relieved] There is another gas for which hydrogen has a strong 

 affinity, namely, chlorine ; and when they are brought into contact 

 with each other they rapidly combine — they both lose their gaseous 

 form, and a fluid, not occupying a thousandth part of the bulk of 

 either, is found in their stead — muriatic acid. 



Chlorine, however, is a highly poisonous gas : it cannot be breathed 

 in a very diluted state without a distressing feeling of sutfocation, 

 and undiluted it would be immediately fatal to life. How shall it be 

 safely introduced into the stomach in order to combine with and 

 change the properties of this hydrogen? 



To a chemist the method of accomplishing this presents no difl^cul- 

 ties. There is a combination of chlorine, fortunately for medicine, 



that is choking by a piece of solid food, too targe to pass, perforates the ^nbstance, 

 and allows of its being easily withdrawn or blown out in fr.igments. 



The figure A represents a section of the stilel probang; the figure B shows the 

 operation of the same, in extracting solid substances. By these inventions it has 

 been truly said Mr. Read has conferred a permanent benefit on the breeder and feeder 

 of domestic animals. These instruments should be in the hands of every farmer ; 

 their cost would be more than repaid by a single operation, by the saving of the life 

 of one of his cattle. Thoir simplicity, too, is such as to render them capable of being 

 employed by any individual, the only necessary preliminary being that the head of 

 the animal be held in a proper position. — S.] 



