DISEASES OF fHE DIGESTIVE ORGANS 203 
vy’: can not be mistaken. The region of the splee.. is between 
the stemach and the false ribs on the left side. 
In view of rendering this subject more valuable and interesting, 
I now introduce the foilowing, which was written for the “ Edin- 
burgh Review :” . 
“Splice Apoplery.—This disease broke out in the year 1858, 
on a farm characterized by its extreme richness of scil, in the 
sorth of Northumberland. In 1859 the malady reappeared, and 
did not cease until twenty-three head of cattle had been affected. 
Splenic apoplexy is a malady that has not hitherto been observed 
in the north of Britain, and its occurrence recently is evidently 
to be attributed to the special method of farming and feeding 
stock where 't has, for the last two years, proved so destructive. 
The farm is a peculiarly dry one. About three hundred head 
of cattle are annually fattened on it. One lot was made ready 
by Christmas, and sold as fat beef in Newcastle; a second was 
kept back until January, when they were allowed an abundance 
of turnips, meal, and the best oat straw. The cattle affected were 
three years old; and it would appear that those fed on Swedish 
turnips, especially from a certain field, suffered most; but some 
fed on yellow or white turnips have been affected, and we should 
regard the meal, and perhaps the oat straw, as more likely to pro- 
duce this disorder. According to Delafoud’s researches, legum- 
inose, or forage very rich in nutritive principles and deficient in 
water, from artificial pastures, are frequent causes of splenic apo- 
plexy. The farmer in Northumberland suspected that the arti- 
ficial manures had produced the troubie, and the following season 
ne dressed his land with home manure; but the properties of the 
‘ast crop have proved as deleterious as those of the preceding one. 
The fact is, the crop had nothing to do with the development of 
the disease. 
The malady stopped suddenly, about the middle of February, 
and this was probably due to the cattle suffering only when the 
system was taxed by change from rather moderate to very high 
feeding. It is an interesting fact that in cows the disorder only 
affects those which are approaching the period when the secretion 
of milk is stopped, and when there is a tendency to lay on flesh, 
they then being liable to plethora. Cows fed on food capable of 
producing spleniz apoplexy die of it. 
Change of diet proved of no avail at the farm referred to (show- 
