112 POISONS. 



too much gruel must not be injected, otherwise it will probably be 

 returned. A quart will generally be as much as will be retained, and 

 the clyster may be repeated five or six times in the course of the 

 day. 



iShould the progress of the disease have been rapid, and the symp- 

 toms violent; or should it be found to be impossible to give medicine 

 by the mouth, or cause them to act by injection, the most prudent 

 thing- will be to have recourse to the butcher. The meat will not be 

 in the slightest degree injured, for it is a disease that is rarely accom- 

 panied by any great degree of fever. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 



POISONS, 



In the early part of the spring, and before the different vegetables 

 have attained their proper growth and smell, cattle are liable to be 

 injured, and even destroyed, by eating poisonous plants; and espe- 

 cially when they are turned into fresh pasture. In some countries 

 and in some seasons, when particular plants have prevailed, a great 

 many cattle have been lost, and it has appeared as if some epidemic 

 disease was raging, until a botanist, accidentally coming into that 

 part of the country, has discovered the true cause of the malady. It 

 is a great pity that farmers and graziers are not sufficiently acquainted 

 with botany to know the different plants, wholesome and poisonous, 

 that are growing in their fields. It is a pleasing study, and would be 

 an exceedingly useful one to them. 



The plants that are the most dangerous are the different species of 

 hemlock, and particularly the water-hemlock, the fox-glove, the drop- 

 wort, and some of the species of crows-foot. These plants are not 

 useful for any purpose, and it is to be lamented that the farmer is not 

 able to recognize them, and root them all up. Young calves and 

 lambs, until they have added some experience to the guidance of in- 

 stinct, are occasionally lost in very great numbers. 



The yew is a deadly poison, and many cattle have been destroyed 

 by it ; but they seldom browse upon it when green. The mischief, 

 in the great majority of cases, is done by the half-dried clippings of 

 some formal hedge-row or fantastic tree. In this state cattle are very 

 apt to eat great quantities of the leaves or shoots. 



Some have thought that cattle are poisoned by drinking from stag- 

 nant pools, full of venomous insects and of every kind of decomposi- 

 tion from animal and vegetable substances. I doubt the truth of this ; 

 for the cow seems to be naturally one of the foulest drinkers among 

 our domesticated quadrupeds. She will often choose the most filthy 

 puddle in the straw-yard in preference to the clearest running stream. 



