2V0 



THE GENESEE FARMER. 



ly empty; its gastric juice tinged of a dark yellow 

 color. The small intestines show no marks of inflam- 

 mation, but their mucous coat is tinged of the same 

 color. The rectum contains indurated fieces covered 

 by brownish slime. The liver is of a darker color 

 than natural, but does not appear to be diseased in 

 Btructure. The gall-bladder, in all cases that I have 

 seen, is full of black, thick bile, somewhat resembling 

 lamp-black and oil. The ductus communis choledo- 

 chus does not appear to be obstructed, or if it is, 

 this is effected by the presence of the neighboring 

 viscera. The fat surrounding the kidneys is healthy, 

 but of a dark yellow tint. The kidney shows no 

 ^pearance of disease, and, on being compressed, 

 emits a few drops of urine similar to that iu the 

 bladder. The latter organ is healthy, but full of 

 dark-colored urine, resembling the thinner parts of 

 the contents of the gall-bladder. There is no accu- 

 mulation of fluid in the cavity of the peritonieum. — 

 The thoracic viscera are healthy, but tinged with 

 yellow, as are the liquor pericardii, and the cerebral 

 fluid. The contents of the lacteals and thoracic duct 

 are of a dark brown color. From the above ap- 

 pearances, the third stomach might seem diseased, 

 but if water or liquid drinks be given plentifully be- 

 fore death, this appearance of dryness of the con- 

 tents and inflammation will not take place. We 

 must, therefore, seek the cause elsewhere. The kid- 

 neys are healthy, but the urine is tinged brown. The 

 whole secretions are also more or less tinged. Shall 

 we suppose, then, that the whole apparatus of secre- 

 tion is diseased, or that the absorption of black in- 

 spissated bile into the blood colors all the secretions, 

 as jaundice does in the human subject? This seems 

 the most reasonable supposition. Bile regurgitated 

 into the substance of the liver, can be taken up by 

 the absorbents and patscd into the blood, causing 

 derangement of the functions of secretion, and giv- 

 ing a red appearance to the urine, milk, &c. If con- 

 Btipatlon of the bowels be present, the bile may be 

 taken up by the al)sorbents of the mesentery, and in- 

 troduced into the circulation; and, if continued for 

 some time, the whole blood will become poisoned as 

 it wt!re, and unfit for the support of animal life, al- 

 though there is no appearance of mortification in any 

 part of the system, but all the secretions, together 

 with the fat, are more or less tinged with a dark 

 brown or yellow color." 



The empirical treatment of red water, on the part 

 of stock-farmei-s, cow-doctors, and veterinary quacks, 

 exhibits the most astonishing variety, and comprises 

 almost a museum of absurdity, and might be instruc- 

 tively detailed, through scores of grotesque and mon- 

 strous particulars, in illustration of human ignorance 

 and folly. Even the professional treatment of it on 

 the Continent has a strong dash of the vague and 

 the ridiculous. But the treatment recommended by 

 all the best British veterinarians is intelligible and 

 simple, and consists mainly in purgation, accompanied 

 with the administration of subordmate remedies suit- 

 ed to the secondary or adventitious symptoms. Mr. 

 Thomson's prescription is one of the clearest, and is 

 declared by Tou.\tt to " comprise the substance of 

 that treatment which is founded on principle, and will 

 be attended by success where success can be attain- 

 ed," and is stated in the following terms: — " Purga^ 



tives of any kind, if given in large quantities of wa- 

 ter, are found to be the best medicines that can be 

 employed. Medicines given to cattle that have lost 

 the power of chewing the cud, generally pass into 

 the first and second stomachs, and if a good draught 

 of water is not given to wash them fruui thf-nce, if 

 the animal dies the greater part of the medicines will 

 be found in these stomachs; and upon this principle, 

 common salt, if properly managed, will be found 

 among the best. Dissolve the quantity to be given 

 in as much water as will enable it to pass freely from 

 the bottle or drenching horn, and let the animal have 

 plenty of water to drink afterwards. Should it re- 

 fuse to drink, no time should be lost in drenching it 

 profusely with water. Without a plentiful dilution, 

 there is no certainty of purging cattle that have lost 

 their cud. If purging does not commence in from 

 12 to 24 hours, a second dose should be given. In- 

 jections of soap and water should also be tried if the 

 case is obstinate, and when they operate, a pint of 

 linseed oil should be given as a laxative. So obsti- 

 nate is the constipation in some cases, that the salt 

 acts only as a diuretic, causing a plentiful discharge 

 of urine. Diuretics and astringents combined seem 

 only of service when the bowels are open, and their 

 improper administration often cau.'-es inflammation of 

 the bowels and kidneys. If, after purgation, the 

 bowels are kept open by laxatives, such as linseed 

 infusion, the disease will gradually disappear without 

 their use. In the last stage of the disease, when the 

 urine assumes a dark-brown or black color, no reme- 

 dy seems to have any efficacy, the animal is sunk be- 

 yond recovery, the bowels lose their action, suppres- 

 sion of urine follows, the animal stretches itself out 

 and dies, as if perfectly exhausted. It is the duty of 

 the owner, then, to attend to the disease at its com- 

 mencement, and pursue a determined course of prac- 

 tice. Whether the disorder be owing to absorbed 

 inspissated bile, diseased manyplies, or disease of the 

 secerning glands, purgatives of any kind, profusely 

 diluted with water, almost always effect a cure." — 

 Some good practitioners, especially when constipa- 

 tion and excitement have occurred before they can 

 prescribe, begin with letting blood, and purge with a 

 mixture of Epsom salt, flowers of sulphur, powdered 

 ginger, and carbonate of ammonia, and, after purga- 

 tion is fairly established, administer miid stimulants 

 or nourishing drinks. 



Red water, both in cattle and in sheep, is often 

 popularly confounded, both in name and in symptom, 

 with inflammation of the kidneys and inflammation 

 of the urethra or of the mucous membrane of the 

 bladder. The urine discharged in these diseases is 

 mixed with blood, but not so intimately as in red wa- 

 ter, and generally with more or less accompaniment 

 of mucus. Inflammation of the bladder or of the 

 kidneys may easily be distinguished by this difTerence 

 in the bloodiness of the urine; and, hke eveiy other 

 case of acute inward inflammation, must be attacked 

 with copious bleeding and with purging, yet must 

 either not at all or veiy cautiously be assailed with 

 counter-irritation. 



A Buffalo wheat-buyer, who invested ^3,000 in 

 wheat, with the design to give the profits to the cause 

 of rehgion, has handed over §1,500 as the result. 



