480 
Abortion in Coics. 
and the results likely to be obtained, have to be drawn up in a 
inemorial, which must be signed by the President of this and 
that Society. Such a memorial must then be presented to the 
Secretary of State, who may or may not then graciously allow 
me " to intentionally give to animals a substance of which they 
frequently partake in their daily food." In fact, I am by no 
means certain that I did not render myself liable to a prosecu- 
tion under the Act when I advised the owner to try the experi- 
ment of keeping the animals closely confined indoors, for had it 
been the infectious malady it is generally considered to be, I 
should thereby have caused animals to suffer which might have 
escaped. If M. Pasteur had been so hampered, we should have 
no remedy for hydrophobia. This law unfairly handicaps 
Englishmen with foreigners in scientific pursuits. 
Should one or more of my readers desire to have this or a 
similar experiment carried out, I should be happy to co-operate 
with them ; but the expense involved would be too much for me 
to incur singlehanded, especially as my pecuniary interest in 
the subject is limited to one cow which has not aborted. 
Remedial Measures, 
Innumerable nostrums have been tried and found wanting. 
Witchcraft and a species of homoeopathy are the only remedies 
in which much faith has been placed. One farmer, with whom 
I am well acquainted, believed that the malady was stayed 
in his herd by burying an aborted calf under the lintel of the 
cowshed door. Another old gentleman writes to me advising 
the efficacy of boiling the forequarters of the aborted calf, and 
giving to each in-calver a pint of the broth, " to destroy the 
smell or smit." Others of a similar nature have been commu- 
nicated to me " on the quiet," so that I am not sure that this 
sort of thing is not more often practised than published. .When 
the premonitory symptoms have set in, I know of no drug capable 
of acting as an antidote, though if this subject is studied as I 
consider its importance demands, I have every reason to believe 
such an antidote might be discovered capable of neutralising the 
effect of ergot ; but bearing in mind that one such case went her 
full time when kept from the possibility of obtaining more ergot, 
it would at all times be wise when such symptoms arise to adopt 
similar measures. If the cow is out, either bring her in or 
remove her to another pasture. If she is in, either change her 
hay or substitute straw for it. I do not expect such treatment 
to be often efficacious, but as it was so in one instance it may 
be so in others, and it does not entail much trouble or expense. 
As a prophylactic or preventive for the remaining cows, 
