242 
Splenic Apoplexy. 
of nitrate of potasli, mixed with a bran masli, for two or three clays 
in succession. It is to be hoped that these means may prove 
beneficial ; but prevention of the disease during the winter months 
must, in Mr. Bradley's case, be mainly based on sanitary improve- 
ments. Subsequently to my inspection I received from Mr. Bradley 
the carcass of a sheep which had died very suddenly on the field 
No. .30, making the second which had been lost after the application 
of the salt. The lesions which were discovered on the examination 
distinctly proved that the animal had sunk from the same disease. 
The blood was everywhere black in colour and only partially 
coagulated, and the spleen was enlarged to about three times its 
natural size. In concluding this report I would express a hope 
that the causes of tliis fatal malady may yet be made evident by the 
co-operation of the chemist, the botanist, and the animal pathologist, 
so as to lead to the adoption of efi'ectual preventive measures. 
(Signed) Jas. B. Simonds. 
Eeport of the Examination of the Pastures in the neitjhbourhood of Ilchester, 
Somerset. B3' Professoe Buckman. 
The little town of Ilchester is situate on an alluvial plain, through 
the centre of which the river Yeo takes its more or less winding 
course. 
This river flat, which varies in width to as much as five miles, 
has a subsoil of alluvial mud and sand, intermixed with more or less 
of the southern or flint drift. 
The land, which is in grass, is subject to flooding from the Yeo 
and its tributaries, and is distinguished by the terras, " useful 
meadow," " marsh," or " moorland," according as it offers facilities 
for preventing the stagnation of the water, and so will pay for 
manuring and other cultivative processes. These flat meadows may 
further be said to occupy a valley of denudation in the Lower Lias 
shales, the spoils of which, mixed with sandy silt and the flint 
drifts before mentioned, form the subsoil of the valley, which latter 
is bounded by low eminences, whose washed sides present the stiff 
intractile soil so characteristic of " immitiyated blue lias." 
Xow these two positions, namely, the river flats on the one hand 
and the liassic elevations on the other, are here remarkable as^bcing 
concerned in the production of two kinds of disease in the animals 
that feed upon the pastures. Thus, the lowlands are dotted with 
meadows which the farmers point out as liaving been fatal to the 
cattle and sheep which have fed upon them, producing a malady 
which has been described as "splenic apoplexy," whilst the higher 
meadows have the name of " scouring " or " tart lands." 
It sho\ild hero be mentioned that the well waters which I tasted 
were all more or less of a medicinal class, the water from some 
wells at Bierly Faim, Tintinhull, and Sock, for example, being 
strongly impregnated with sulphuretted hydrogen, whilst that of 
others might be described as mineral or saline waters. In fact, the 
waters reminded me very forcibly of those in the vale of Gloucester. 
u 
