THE OX AND THE DAIRY. 247 



picion of the real state of the case, though it be suspicion 

 only, no harm can be done by acting as if it were confirmed. 

 Injections to a large extent of soap-water and oil should be 

 administered, and that repeatedly, and a pint of linseed oil, 

 with twenty grains of the farina of cro ton- seed, or twenty 

 drops of good croton oil may be poured slowly down the 

 gullet ; this purgative, with a little gruel, may be repeated 

 every eight or ten hours, till the obstruction be forced. 

 Should pain and fever render it desirable, blood must be 

 taken away, and it may be necessary to repeat the bleeding. 



Balls of hair, however, are not the only mechanical obstruc- 

 tions of the alimentary canal. Balls of hard undigested 

 fibrous vegetable matters, sometimes mingled with hair, 

 threads, and extraneous articles, but by no means always so, 

 are often impacted in the lower bowels : medicines give no 

 relief, and the animal sinks after enduring indescribable agony. 

 The same treatment must be repursued as that already 

 described, and not unfrequently the hand, if the substance 

 be in the rectum, will better remove the obstacle than any 

 medicine. This observation applies both to hair-balls and to 

 hardened faBcal matter. Horses are very subject to this ob 

 struction, and it occurs frequently in cattle fed too much upon 

 dry food. Some recommend in these cases, besides purgative 

 medicines, injections of tobacco-water (an ounce of tobacco 

 infused in a gallon of boiling water), but in the use of this 

 injection great caution is requisite. We have known it pros- 

 trate the nervous system even to dissolution. It may be tried 

 as an ultimate resource. We are inclined to recommend in- 

 jections of oil, gruel, and laudanum (of the last two ounces), 

 in cases where the straining produces agony ; the opium may 

 not only ease the pain, but cause the muscular fibres of the 

 lower bowels to relax from their constriction, while it will not 

 interfere with the operation of the purgative medicines. 



ENLARGEMENT OF THE MESENTERIC GLANDS. 



We have said that, in the mesentery, to which the bowels 

 are attached, there are numerous glandular bodies through 

 which the lacteal s or nutrient ducts pass in their course to 

 the thoracic duct, or great receptacle of the chyle. In the ox, 

 as in the human subject and other animals, these glands are 

 liable to enlargement; they are affected with a scrofulous 

 disease, and in this condition arrest the currents of nutrition ; 

 the abdomen swells greatly, the limbs and frame become 



