THE FORAMINA OF THE FOREHEAD. 147 



find the beast r ipidly becoming dull and drooping, and carrying his 

 head on one side. Either grubs or worms have crept up the nostril, 

 and are a source of irritation there ; or inflammation, at first merely of 

 the membrane of the nose, and connected with common cold, has 

 extended along the cavity, and is more intense in some particular spot 

 than in others ; or has gone on to suppuration, and matter is thrown 

 out and lodged there, and generally about the root of one of the 

 horns. The veterinary surgeon either opens the skull at the root of 

 the horn, or, in a more summary and better way, cuts off the horn at 

 its root. More than a pin\ of pus sometimes esxiapes ; and although 

 there may not be throwing out of pus, yet the inflammation will be 

 materially relieved by the bleeding that follows -such an operation. 

 The opening into the sinus which is thus made should be speedily 

 closed, or the air will render the inflammation worse than before. 



On account of the vast extent of cavity from the communication 

 between all the partitions of the sinus, the ox occasionally sufters 

 much from the larva of a species of fly that creeps up the nose and 

 lodges in some part ; the annoyance is sometimes so great as to be 

 scarcely distinguished from phrenitis. This does not often happen ; 

 for the sinuses are more the accidental than the natural and regular 

 habitation of these insects. 



THE USE OF THESE SINUSES. 



These plates of the skull are separated from each other at least an 

 inch at all places, and in some parts more than double that distance 

 (see cut, p. 144). The skull is the covering of the brain. The wea- 

 pons of off"ence spring from the skull, and are often used with terrible 

 eflfect about the skull The polled cattle use their heads as weapons 

 of oftence, and butt each other with tremendous foi'ce. If the frontal 

 bone were so solid as almost to resist the very possibility of fracture, 

 yet if the brain lay immediately underneath it, the concussion from 

 the shock of their rude encounters would be dangerous, and often 

 fatal. Therefore the bones are divided into two plates, and separated 

 as widely as possible from each other, where, as at the parietal crest, 

 and the root of the horn, the shock is most likely to fall. There are 

 also inserted between the plates numerous little perpendicular walls, 

 or rather scales of bone, (see c, p. 144,) of vafer-like thinness, which 

 give sufficient support to the outer plate in all ordinary cases, and by 

 their thinness and elasticity afford a yielding resistance capable of 

 neutralizing almost any force. If the external plate is fractured, the 

 inner one is seldom injured. 



THE FORAMINA OF THE FOREHEAD. 



There are marks of contrivance in the structure of the head of the 

 ox, which should not be passed over. The large expanse of the 



