THE DISEASES OF CATTLE. 269 



caudal appendage, or slit open the soft spot, and stuflf in tar, 

 pepper, salt, or whatever remedy neighbor so and so recom- 

 mends. It seems a pity that the poor animals I am now writ- 

 ing about, cannot, like their masters, receive the benefit* 

 resulting from the investigations of scientific men, in improved 

 methods of treating disease. However, it is gratifying to 

 know that the errors of the past are fast " dying out," and that 

 the days of ignorance are numbered. 



The tail is sometimes the seat of a local affection arising 

 from blows, etc., or it may be the seat of a cutaneous dis- 

 ease; but neither one nor the other can be of so grave a 

 character as to produce paralysis of the posterior limbs. The 

 soft extremity of the tail may also occasionally become con- 

 gested, or else oedematous (dropsical). But these states of 

 the part would not justify a man in cutting off the tail, for the 

 limbs are often found in the same condition, and no one would 

 ever think of lopping them off; for the remedy would be worse 

 than the disease, and, so far as the tail is concerned in being 

 the seat of local congestion, or oedema, there is no disease at 

 all, and therefore does not require local treatment. But I am 

 not discussing the probabilities of diseases of the tail. This is 

 not my purpose. I only aim to show the folly of making the 

 cow's tail the indicator of the various diseases of her body, 

 and also that of confounding a disease of the nervous system 

 with a slight congestion of the tail ; and farther, the folly of 

 arguing that the cow's strength is taken out of her back, etc., 

 because the end of her tail is soft. 



If the tails of neat stock, or those of any other animals, 

 become diseased, in the name of humanity let them be pre- 

 scribed for. But I do hope that those who read this ai'ticle 

 will never be caught prying into the end of the above useful 

 appendage for the purpose of demonstrating that which never 

 existed. 



Almost all animals said to have the tail-ail, are laboring 

 under various forms of disease remote from the tail, and how- 

 ever diligent men may be in performing their barbarous 

 operation?; on the same, the disease under which the animal 



