Splenic Apoplez!/. 
239 
these, and while also thej' "were being fed entirely on hay. On 
inspecting the yards, I found them badly arranged, and by no 
means adapted for the preservation of the health of animals. This 
is particularly the case with the yards at the back of the house, 
where the animals alluded to had died. The feeding-bins, which 
fire built of stone, are so placed that the water from the buildings 
runs towards them, and acciunulates to such an extent that the 
cattle have to stand mid-leg deep in liquid manure, notwithstanding 
they may be fairly supplied with straw. The drinking-place is 
placed at even a lower level, and becomes a receptacle for so largo 
an amount of the drainage of the yard that, but for a small flow of 
water fiom an adjacent pond conducted throiigh it, the animals 
would be unable to obtain little else than their o'wn evacuations 
■diluted with the ordinary rain-fall. Nothing could be more objec- 
tionable than the water they had to drink. The other yards are 
somewhat better arranged, but still open to great improvements, 
both with regard to the supply of water and the comfort of the 
animals while at their feeding-bins. The drinking-place in one — 
the inner — yard receives a considerable portion of tbe drainage of 
the other, and it is worth}' of note that the bullock which died in 
December was placed in this j'ard. A small stream flows at the 
bottom of both these yards, so that the animals in the other one can 
get good water, while those in the inner are compelled to drink it 
after it has become charged to some extent with drainage matters. 
In the absence of any other cause, I cannot but attribute the cases 
which occurred in December and also in March to the general want 
of comfort afforded to the animals, and their drinking of water 
charged with feculent matters — two things necessarily associated 
Avith the bad construction of the yards. 
The cases, however, which have occurred during the summer 
months must have depended on causes of a totally different kind, 
and a further investigation may show that they were probably due 
to the general character of the herbage of the pastures o*n which 
the animals were placed. It has been already shown that the 
animals, when at pasture, can obtain a supply of good water, either 
from the river Yeo or from adjacent brooks, but, nevertheless, the 
entire water question requires a strict examination. Like many 
parts of Somersetshire, the district abounds in land locally called 
" tart-land," the herbage of which produces dian-hcea often to an 
alarming extent among the cattle. The real cause of "tartness" 
would appear not to be well understood, and scientific researches 
are therefore required for the proper solution of the problem. The 
character of the water in some places, apart from the herbage, is 
known to produce diarrhoea ; and it not unfrequently happens that 
this condition of the water and " tart land " are combined. It does 
not, however, appear that " tart land " exercises any influence in the 
production of splenic apoplexy, or, at any rate, it seems not to have 
done so in the present instances. Were it otherwise, the disease 
would have been far more frequent in its occurrence than it has 
