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affected at the same time. The disease, although due, in the first 

 instance, to some pecuHarity of the food, may be regarded as a 

 deterioration of the blood, and the most striking symptom is the dark 

 red or black colour of the urine, which is passed from the bladder in a 

 slow, jerkmg, spiral stream, causing a bubbling froth as it falls on the 

 ground ; but there is no coagulation, or blood-clot, as is seen when 

 there is haemorrhage from the kidneys, ureters, or bladder. Formerly, 

 this used to be a very common malady in the North of England ; but 

 improvements, of late years, in the drainage, and the application of 

 artificial manures, have gone far to make this a disease of rare 

 occurrence. Twenty years ago, it was nothing uncommon to see ten 

 or twelve cases in as many hours ; but during the last twenty years I 

 have had very few cases. I have never seen it follow parturition, and 

 only twice have I seen it affect stall-fed animals ; both of these attacks 

 were, however, very slight. 



463. The lands principally affected are poor, undrained, shivery, 

 gravelly pastures, and sour wet mosses, where the herbage is of a 

 coarse acrimonious nature, in which acrid plants, such as tormentil, 

 abound. The malady generally makes its appearance in the summer 

 and autumn months — August and September, especially — following, 

 usually, a sharp heavy rain, after a spell of dry weather, when the 

 grasses spring up rapidly, and, under these conditions, the complaint 

 is rife. Cattle bred and reared on the above-mentioned soils are, 

 however, more immune from attack than those reared on good land, 

 and brought on to the bad to graze. I am strongly of opinion that 

 the disease is due to a want of a normal quantity of saline matters in 

 the food, which, in turn, interferes with and destroys the balance 

 between the solids and fluids of the blood. As already shown, blood 

 contains a large proportion of salt, and has, in fact, a soft saline taste. 

 Now, on account of the acid nature of the food obtainable on these 

 sour pastures, a sufiicient amount of saline material is not conveyed to 

 the blood to preserve the equilibrium, between the solid and fluid parts, 

 so that the watery portions, by endosmosis, pass through the cell walls 

 of the red corpuscles, and so distend them, that they burst, and they then 

 pass through the excreting water tubes — uriniferous tubes — of the 



