68 



calves having been lost through abortion, I should think it was caused 

 through sympathy, as it is well known that when one cow in a pas- 

 ture casts her calf, several others feeding along with her are very 

 likely to do the same." 



Mr. DeB. Spencer Heaven to Director. 

 " I may say that I believe I have lost calves in consequence of the 

 cows being placed in paddocks where they were able to get at the 

 fallen green calabashes. Recently two cows were placed in a pasture 

 where there happens to be plenty of calabash growing, and both 

 slipped their calves, which were well advanced. 1 have known for 

 some time that the negroes used calabash juice for cases of hard labor 

 and also for other purposes, but was not aware that it had so powerful 

 an effect in breeding stock as that mentioned by Barham in his Hor- 

 tus Americanus. 



A syrup of calabash juice and white sugar is an excellent remedy 

 for coughs, either common or consumptive, so the calabash has its 

 beneficial uses if it is deleterious for stock that are breeding." 



Mr. Adam Roxburgh to Di) ector. 



" I cannot say that it has ever come under my own observation that 

 calabash eaten by an animal when carrying will cause abortion. Like 

 your correspondent, however, I have, during the past month, had no 

 less than four cases of abortion amongst my breeding cows. I have 

 enquired of my cattlemen as to whether they have noticed the cows 

 eating calabash, but they have not seen them doing it, though we 

 know that the cows do eat the pulp sometimes, and it is quite possible 

 that they may have been doing so lately. 



The pulp of the calabash is used also by our peasantry as a cure for 

 colds and sprains. Now it is likely that it acts by contracting the blood 

 vessels round the bruised parts, and it is just as likely that it would 

 act in the same way on the womb, and by the contraction of the organ 

 cause abortion. Hence it is very probable that Barham is quite cor- 

 rect in what he says." 



Robt. Wallace's Farm Live Stock or (treat Britain, in a chap- 

 ter on " Cows and their Management" states : — 

 " Causes of Premature Labour — 



1. Eating ergotised grass in autumn. 



2. Injury, as from horning by other cattle, hunting by dogs, 



crushing through narrow doorways, staking and bruising on 

 a railway journey, &c. 



3. Walking through a dung heap, or over boggy or soft land, and 



getting strained 



4. Very cold or foul water, or too many frosted turnips, especially 



if given in the house while the animal is not moving freely 

 about. 



5 Superpurgation, either natural or induced by physic. 



6. Any contagious febrile disease of a serious character ; for ex- 

 ample, infection arising from association with newly aborted 

 cows which are affected with contagious abortion, or from 

 bad animal smells. 

 " The last is perhaps more common and dangerous than all the 



