112 THE NATURE AND TREATMENT OP 



SUSPENDED RUMINATION OR LOSS OF CUD. 



Some people, who are in the habit of prescribing for loss of 

 cud, more properly termed " cessation of rumination," suppose 

 that if they can only restore the lost function the trouble will 

 end. This is certainly very desirable, for an improvement in the 

 appetite of sick animals is a sure sign of rapid recovery ; yet 

 a restoration of the cud alone will not always insure a cure ; 

 neither are the remedies prescribed by some, calculated to ac- 

 complish this object. One man recommends a red herring to 

 be thrust down the throat ; another a portion of the quid, or 

 cud, of a healthy cow. Others recommend raw beef, pork, 

 pepper, etc. This results from mistaking symptoms for disease, 

 for loss of cud is nothing more than a symptom of deranged 

 digestive function, or that of other organs sympathetically as- 

 sociated with it. Those who have the care of cattle, and 

 prescribe for them when sick, are not supposed to be able to 

 trace loss of cud to derangement of one or a class of organs, un- 

 less they shall have had the advantages of a medical education, 

 which is not often the case. They ai-e not acquainted with the 

 various sympathetic relations that exist in the animal economy, 

 neither can they understand why an abnormal condition of one 

 organ produces a corresponding effect in one or a class of 

 organs remotely situated ; nevertheless, such are the facts. 

 Many a poor cow has been thus forced to swallow down a red 

 herring (bones and all) or " another cow's quid " (not of tobacco, 

 for none other than two-legged animals chew quids of this 

 description), and we can readily conceive that such articles 

 may, for the time being, arouse the digestive organs, and create 

 an unnatural appetite in animals of such refined taste and nice 

 discrimination as the cow. A red herring, either whole or 

 comminuted by the grinders, and then swallowed, only creates 

 irritation on the mucous surfaces of the various compartments 

 of the stom'ach ; an unusual abundance of blood flows into the 

 walls of that organ, the circulation of that fluid is quickened, 

 the gastric juice flows more readily, and the digestive function 

 is exalted. A repetition of the practice enfeebles the power 



