250 MIXED CAUSES OF 



There are certain combinations of causes that are of much 

 practical and public interest inasmuch as their results are 

 sources of daily danger to human life in all our large towns, 

 while they are also preventable, though they are at present 

 utterly misunderstood. I allude to the subject of so-called 

 ' razed ' or 6 crazed ' cattle, on their way through the streets 

 of cities to the shambles. Fatal accidents from such animals 

 are of constant occurrence, so that it is scarcely possible to 

 take up a city newspaper without finding some case or cases 

 of infuriated oxen popularly called c mad' doing serious 

 damage to man's life or property. I have had occasion to 

 make a special inquiry into the mental and bodily condition 

 of such animals, and into the causes of their suddenly deve- 

 loped dangerous fury, not only because, (1) I believe the 

 subject to be one of the highest public importance ; but also 

 because (2) some serious accidents arising from this source 

 have happened recently in my own neighbourhood in one 

 case almost at my own door. 



On the Bridge of Perth, in 1874, a young lady, daughter 

 of a well-known farmer in the Carse of Growrie, was crushed 

 to death by being butted against the parapet wall by a stot 

 (a young bullock) which was being driven to the slaughter- 

 house ; and not long after, in Dundee, another stot and cow, 

 that were also being driven from the Carse of Gowrie to the 

 city slaughter-house, tossed people in the air, butted at 

 them, knocked them down and rolled over" them happily in 

 this latter case without fatal result. An inquiry into the 

 circumstances of these local accidents brought out the 

 following points relative to the condition of the cattle in 

 question : 



1. Such cattle are usually stall-fed: they are kept all the 

 winter in byres, deprived of exercise and air, and fed on 

 provender such as rapecake, calculated simply to fatten 

 them for the market, not to produce either bodily or mental 

 health. 



2. Accustomed to a monotonous, secluded life among their 

 own kind, incapable of much bodily fatigue from long inac- 

 tivity of their muscles, tender of foot, intensely impression- 

 able and nervous, they are suddenly driven many miles over 



