246 THE OX AND THE DAIEY. 



formanse of the operation of opening that sac, the source of 

 the evil is detected and removed. 



It very often happens that bits of stick, iron, or stone, 

 taken into the stomach form the nucleus of a large globular 

 calculus, consisting of the various compounds of lime or silex, 

 beautifully arranged in concentric layers. These concretions 

 are extremely firm and hard, and when sawn into two pieces 

 the flat surface of each takes as glossy a polish as marble. 

 They vary in size ; we have seen specimens of extraordinary 

 magnitude. It is in the rumen principally, if not exclusively, 

 that these calculi of the stomach are found, and their presence 

 is often unsuspected until after death. Yet we cannot sup- 

 pose that they produce no derangement of the digestive 

 organs, and we believe that they are most commonly to be 

 met with in beasts that do not thrive well, and that manifest 

 irregularity of appetite. Whether they cause this, or are 

 themselves the results of some morbid action continuing to 

 exert an unfavourable influence, may be a matter of opinion ; 

 but of one thing we may be sure, they will not tend to the 

 abatement of the morbid condition of the stomach which con- 

 duced to their formation : the rule of action and reaction may 

 be reasonably suspected. 



Cattle are prone to lick their own hides and the hides of 

 each other. The hair swallowed passes into the stomach and 

 becomes matted, by means of the saliva and mucus, into balls; 

 a nail, a bit of stick, or a portion of fibrous vegetable matter, 

 sometimes, but not always, constituting their nucleus. These 

 bird's-nest-like balls are found both in the rumen and the 

 abomasum. In the former, they are often mingled with 

 vegetable matters, with threads of cotton, linen or woollen, 

 with particles of earth, straw, and other substances. In the 

 abomasum, they consist exclusively of intertwined matted 

 hair. How long these balls may remain in the abomasum, 

 and what functional derangements they may occasion, it is 

 not easy to say. Sometimes, however, these balls either pass 

 into the intestinal canal, or are formed there, producing a 

 fatal obstruction. The farmer drenches the poor beast, but 

 to no purpose; not perhaps that the medicine fails in its 

 office, but a mechanical obstruction prevents its due opera- 

 tion ; this only adds to the animal's agony, and it dies worn 

 out by pain and perhaps inflammation. Could the nature of 

 the obstruction be ascertained, some measures perhaps might 

 be resorted to ; and even when circumstances lead to a sus- 



