BLELDING FROM THE NOSE. 181 



nose. It is the impression which is made by the odor of bodies 

 striking on this diffused pulpy matter, that produces the sense of 

 smell ; and in proportion to the extent of surface over which the 

 nerve is spread, is the acuteness of the smell. 



The ox partly breathing through the mouth, and the air passage 

 being widened by the removal of a portion of the septum, provision 

 can be made for the more extensive diffusion of the nervous pulp. 

 Nearest to the skull, and situated at the upper part of the nasal 

 cavity, are the cells of the aethmoid bone, (r, p. 144,) and the supe- 

 rior development of them in the ox is evident. The lower cell of the 

 sethmoid labyrinth is so much lengthened in the ox, that it is some- 

 times described as a third turbinated bone. It is represented at u, 

 p. 144. Below these are the two turbinated bones, (5 and t, p. 144,) 

 both of them, and especially the lower one, largely developed. Each 

 of these bones is composted of a labyrinth of cells, divided from each 

 other by wafer-like plates of bone, perforated like the cribriform plate 

 of the sethmoid bone — lined by the Schneiderian membrane, with the 

 nervous pulp spread over or identified with that membrane — and a 

 thou^md communications between the membranes in every part, by 

 means of the gauze-like perforated structure of the plates. 



This membrane is either covered with an unctuous fluid, or the 

 air passages are so complicated that the pure atmospheric air alone 

 is suffend to pass ; the slightest odor or solid substance of any kind 

 is arrested. This is not only a wise provision for the perfection of 

 the sense of smelling — it not only secures the contact of every parti- 

 cle with the membrane of the nose, and its temporary lodgment 

 there, but it protects the air passages from many a source of annoy- 

 ance, danger, and death. 



Nature has provided an acute sense of smell for the ox : it was 

 wanted. It was necessary that the animal should detect the peculiar 

 scent of every plant, as connected either with nutrition or destruc- 

 tion. Instinct perhaps teaches him much, but he is more indebted 

 to the lessons of experience. In the spring of the year, when the 

 scent of the infant plant is scarcely developed, cattle are often de- 

 ceived with regard to the nature of the herbage ; aie subject to pe- 

 culiar complaints of indigestion ; and are sometimes poisoned. 



BLEEDING FROM THE ^-OSE. 



Working oxen, and especially those in tolerably high condition, 

 are occasionally subject to bleeding from the nose, and sometimes 

 very profuse bleeding. If too hardly and too long worked during 

 the heat of a summer's day, nasal haemorrhage may occur ; to blows 

 inflicted on the nasals or on tliB muzzle by a brutal drover or 

 ploughman, far oftener than to any other cause, is bleeding due. It 

 is not often that any unpleasant consequences ensue. The bleeding 

 gradually ceases. 



