578 Quarterly Reports of the Chemical Committee, 1883. 
from the bullocks, were found ill ou the morning of the 22nd. There have 
been no further deaths, and the eighteen animals imder treatment are 
recovering. All attacked had been fed on Friday, the 21st, with 3J lbs. each 
of the Texas cake. A duly qualified veterinary has had the animals under 
his charge from noon of the 22nd. In the opinion of this veterinary the 
cotton-cake is the cause of illness and death, and the cake itself contains an 
acrid poison. One of the animals dead was immediately dressed by a butcher, 
and the stomach, &c., opened and examined. The other two animals were 
skinned and buried where they died, and their stomachs and bowels were 
placed in bags for examination. I have asked the vendors of the cake to be 
present at an inquiry ou the spot into the whole circumstances, but at 
present they refuse. I wish you to send down, as soon as possible, to-morrow 
(Wednesday), a veterinary professor competent for a thorough and exhaustive 
inquiry. The London and North-Western trains from Euston to Eugeley 
(three miles from me) are good, and I trust there will be time to-morrow for 
a complete examination on the spot, when also samples of the cake and 
contents of stomachs can be taken for aualj'sis. I am writing by same post 
to the vendors of the cake, so that they can be represented on the inquiry if 
they think fit. Meanwhile everything is left, as far as possible, undisturbed. 
— Believe me, yours very faithfulh', 
H. M. Jenkins, Esq. T. Careikgton Smith. 
September 27th, 1883. 
Dear Mr. Smith, — Mr. Edward S. Shave, of the Eoyal Veterinary 
College, called upon me to-day, and placed into my hands two samples of 
Texas cake, which appear to me very much like the samjjle upon which 
I reported to you on the 21st inst. Presuming the cake to have done the 
mischief to your stock, as it in all probability did, there will be no use 
whatever in analysing the viscera of the animals, for in that case poison can 
be as little discovered in the stomach of an animal as in the case of mouldy 
stale bread or mouldy oats, or similar articles of food covered with I'ungi or 
mouldiness. As the cake is represented to be exceedingly rich in feeding 
properties, it may be advisable to have the two samples handed to me by 
Mr. Edward Shave analysed in conformity with the regulations of the Iloyal 
Agricultural Society. You will oblige me by sending me the requisite fee of 
11. for the analysis of the two cakes. — Yours faithfully, 
Augustus Voelcker. 
Admaston, Eugeley, September 28th, 1883. 
Dear Dr. Voelcker, — The ground sample delivered to you by Mr. Shave 
■will, I expect, give ou analysis some distinctly poisouous ingredients. 
Perhaps I had better explain that, not suspecting anything deleterious in the . 
cake when I sent you the sample on September 13th, I used it to many head 
of stock for more than a week, and no symptom of illness was shown in any 
one case until Saturday morning, the 22ud. On that morning 21 beasts 
•were simultaneously attacked, the whole of one lot, viz., 13, 13-year old 
bullocks, being dreadfully ill — three fatally — the other eight being milking 
cows out of a herd grazed in fields far away from the bullocks. These eight, 
though very ill at first, have all recovered, except that they have not come 
back to their full flow of milk. About 12 more milking cows were up to the 
22nd inst. fed similarly with the Texas cake for the same period as those 
affected, and have not sliowii any symptoms of illness. All the 21 animals 
seized were ou the day previous to their attack fed with 3.J lbs. of cake, the 
eight cows at G a.m. and the 13 bullocks at 10 a.m. I have come to the 
conclusion that, however mischievous the whole bulk is, there are in it some 
bags worse than others, and we cannot reasonably attribute the violent attack 
of the 21 animals to anything else than the presence of a very virulent ixiisoii 
in a particular bag out of which these 21 only were fed. We believe tliat 
