SIO CATTLE. 



The carraway and ginger powder are the best aronaatics that can be 

 employed, and will supersede every other : the gentian and ginger, 

 with Epsom salts, as recommended in page 308, will prove a very- 

 useful tonic and alterative, in cases of " loss of cud" that cannot be 

 traced to any particular diseased state of the animal, or that seems to 

 be connected with general debility. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE RUMEN. 



■ In almost every book on cattle-medicine mention is made of " in- 

 flammation of the stomach ;'* and certainly cases do, although but 

 rarely, occur, in which evident traces of inflammation of the rumen 

 may be discovered on examination after death. The cuticular coat 

 is not discolored, but it peels from the mucous coat below at the 

 slightest touch, and that coat is red and injected. This is particu- 

 larly the case when a beast dies soon after apparent recovery from 

 distension of the stomach by gas, or when he is destroyed by the 

 accumulation of solid food that could not be removed. It is likewise 

 found in every case of poisoning, but the symptoms during life are 

 so obscure that it would be useless to bestow further time on the 

 consideration of this disease. 



POISONS. 



Nature has endowed the brute with an acuteness of the various 

 senses, and with a degree of instinct which, so far as the life and 

 enjoyment and usefulness of the animal are concerned, fully compen- 

 sate for the lack of the intelligence of the human being. The quad- 

 ruped is scarcely born ere he is mysteriously guided, and without 

 any of the lessons of experience, to the kind of food which aflbrds 

 him the most suitable nourishment, and he is warned from that which 

 would be deleterious. There is scarcely a pasture which does not 

 contain some poisonous plants, yet the beast crops the grass close 

 around them, without gathering a particle of that which would be 

 injurious. In the spring of the year, however, and especially after 

 they have been kept in the stall or the straw-yard during the winter, 

 and supported chiefly on dry food, as soon as they are turned into 

 the fields cattle eat greedily of every herb that presents itself, and 

 frequently are seriously diseased, and sometimes quite poisoned.. 

 They are under the influence of appetite almost ungovernable, and 

 few plants have then acquired tlieir distinguishing form and color, 

 and taste and smell. The common and water-hemlock, the water 

 dropwort, and the yew, are the principal plants that are poisonous to 

 cattle ; but it is said that the common crow-foot, and various others 

 of the ranunculus family, the wild parsnip, black henbane, and the 

 wild poppy, are occasionally destructive. 



The symptoms of poisoning by these acrid and narcotic plants are 

 obscure, unless they can be connected with the history of the case. 

 They are principally sudden swelling, with a peculiar stupor, in the 



