NEA7 CATTLE. 185 



GIVING MEDICINE TO RUMINANTS. 



All medicines given to ruminants, or cud-chewing 

 animals, of a nauseous nature, should b( given in a fluid 

 form, and poured slowly and gently down the throat, 

 holding the head of the animal no higher than is neces- 

 sary to prevent the liquid from running out of the mouth, 

 and les-ving the tongue free, that the animal may have 

 command of his swallow. If medicines are given in 

 solid form, they will go into the paunch, and if nauseous, 

 they will give a distaste to the contents of the stomach, 

 and prevent rumination, which is attended with danger. 

 Therefore, nauseous medicines should not be given in 

 solid form. If liquid doses are given to arouse the first 

 stomach to action, or to abate fermentation, or absorb 

 gases in that organ, or as a remedy for poisons, turn 

 them down suddenly, and then they will be more likely 

 to enter the rumen. But the surest way is to put them 

 down through a tube or a stomach-pump. When the 

 paunch is not affected with hove, or poison, or by the 

 animal's eating too much grain, it is best to give liquid 

 medicines, and slowly, that they may pass on into the 

 other stomachs and intestines, and produce a more 

 speedy action. 



FREE MARTINS. 



When a cow has twins, one a bull calf, and the other 

 apparently a heifer calf, called a free martin, the heifer, 

 by some singular law of nature, limited to cattle only, 

 seldom breeds. It was long positively asserted, that 

 free martins never breed, but we have heard of six excep- 

 tions. Several distinguished surgeons have examined 

 into this singular phenomena, and it evidently appears 

 to result from a deficiency in, or malformation of, the 

 organs of generation. 



BOTS IN CATTLE. 



A neighbor gave the author an account of a cow that 

 was slaughtered in the fall, and she had so many bots in 

 16* 



