C 39 3 



Oji Hoven Cattle, By John Steele, 



Read August 1809. 



As the President in the communication on hoven 

 cattle, with which he has favoured the society, has re- 

 ferred them to the Museum Rusticum, I beg leave to 

 submit to their consideration some remarks on the pa* 

 pers inserted in that pubhcation by Mr. John W. Baker. 

 I deem this the more important, since the errors and 

 inconsistencies of this writer, with respect to the seat of 

 the disease, the necessity of piercing the gut to let the 

 wind escape, and the little fear that should be enter- 

 tained of wounding the intestine, appear to have been 

 adopted by the President ; and may, whilst sanctioned 

 by his name, be productive of injurious consequences 

 in those parts of the country where the introduction of 

 clover is recent, and where little experience of the treat- 

 ment of hoven cattle has been consequently acquired. 



That the first stomach which contains the crude ali- 

 ment, previously to undergoing the process of regurgita- 

 tion, is the principle seat of the disorder, is evinced, not 

 only by the relief afforded by natural eructation, and by 

 the extraction of the fixed air through a flexible tube 

 introduced through the oesophagus, but also by pierc- 

 ing the paunch in the most prominent place between 

 the hip bone and the short rib on the left side, which is 

 the ordinary method. — In the last case a considerable 

 quantity of vegetable matter in a high state bf fermen- 

 tation generally obtrudes through the orifice, but I never 

 witnessed anv emissiion of wind from the abdomen. — • 



