THE DIFFICULTY OF PURGING CATTLE. 297 



ignorant of the anatomy and function^ of the stomachs, he wonders 

 at the obstinate constipation which seems to bid defiance to all pur- 

 gative medicines ; whereas, in fact, little or none of it had entered 

 the intestinal canal. At length, perhaps, the rumen is excited to 

 action, and ejects a considerable portion of its liquid, and some of its 

 more solid contents, either directly into the oesophagean canal, or 

 through the medium of the reticulum ; and which, by an inverted 

 and forcible contraction, is driven through the manyplus and into the 

 fourth stomach, and thence into the intestinal canal, and produces 

 sometimes natural, but at other times excessive and unmanageable 

 and fatal purgation. The great quantity of fibrous substance 

 which occasionally is found in the dung, warns us that this has taken 

 place. 



Occasionally, when dose after dose has been given, and the animal 

 dies apparently constipated, the whole of the physic is found in the 

 rumen. These are difiiculties in cattle practice which are not yet 

 sufiiciently understood. 



When two or three moderate doses have been given, and purgincr 

 is not produced, the practitioner may begin to suspect that his medi- 

 cine has fallen through this oesophagean fissure into the rumen ; and 

 then, although he does not quite discontinue the physic, he should 

 principally endeavor to stimulate this cuticular, yet not quite insensi- 

 ble stomach. He should lessen the quantity of the purgative, and 

 he should double or treble that of the aromatic and stimulant ; and, 

 in many cases, he will thus succeed in producing an intestinal evacua- 

 tion, the fibrous nature of which will prove the unnatural pi'ocess by 

 which it was effected. 



It was, perhaps, from observation of the occasional benefit derived 

 from the administration of aroraatics and stimulants, even in inflam- 

 matory cases, that the absurd and mischievous practice of giving 

 them in every disease, and every state of disease, arose. 



The reason and the propriety of the administration of cattle- 

 medicine in a liquid form is hence evident. A ball, in consequence 

 of its weight, and the forcible manner in which it is urged on by the 

 muscles of the cesophagus, breaks through the floor of the oesopha- 

 gean canal, and enters the rumen, and is lost. A liquid, administered 

 slowly and carefully, and trickling down the cesophagus without the 

 possibihty of the muscles of that tube acting upon it and increasing 

 its momentum, is likel}^ to glide over this singular floor, and enter 

 the fourth stomach and the intestines. A hint may hence be derived 

 with regard to the manner of administering a drink. If it be poured 

 down bodily from a large vessel, as is generally done, it will probably 

 fall on the canal with sufficient force partly, at least, to separate the 

 pillars, and a portion of it Avill enter the rumen and be useless. 



In the calf, fed entirely on its mother's milk, the rumen is in a 

 mamiei useless, for all the food goes on to the fourth stomach. It 

 13* 



