204 Interim Report on Veterinary Investigations. 
animals had died very suddenly, while being fed for exhibition 
at the Society's annual show. Three pigs, also, which partook of 
some of the same cake, but only in small quantities, died at 
about tlie same time. All the animals presented the same morbid 
appearances on a post-mortem examination. 
Neither a chemical nor microscopical examination led to the 
detection of anything of a poisonous nature in the specimens of 
cake examined. They were, however, of inferior quality, and 
appeared to have been greatly deteriorated by long keeping. 
May 6th, 1871. — A healthy young heifer, about a year old, 
was selected for the experiment, and placed by herself in a 
loose box ; water and hay, in ordinary quantities, being given to 
her, in addition to the suspected cake. 
The quantity of cake supplied was 1 lb., and the same 
amount was allowed per diem for three consecutive days. On 
the 4th and 5th days, 2 lbs. each day were given ; after 
which the animal partook of 4 lbs., for four days ; 6 lbs., for six 
days; and 8 lbs., for two days; making a total of 75 lbs. in 
seventeen days. 
On the evening of the fifth day of the experiment the heifer 
had an attack of indigestion, accompanied with tympany of the 
abdomen. This, however, passed off naturally, and by the 
following morning she appeared to be in her usual state of healh. 
On the evening of the sixteenth day, after partaking of 8 lbs. of 
cake, she exhibited symptoms of serious illness; but towards 
evening she rallied a little. On the next morning, however, a 
relapse took place, and within little more than an hour she died. 
No treatment was adopted. 
Tlie post-mortem examination, which was made as early after 
death as possible, showed all the usual indications of blood- 
poisoning from deleterious food to be present,, to a greater or less 
extent, in the several organs of the body. Venous congestion 
existed everywhere, the blood being black in colour and only 
imperfectly clotted. The abdomen contained a quantity of 
dark-coloured serous exudation. The rumen and other stomachs 
were distended with gaseous products, but their structure did not 
seem to have suffered. The intestines throughout presented an 
ecchymosed < ondition of the mucous membrane, the small ones 
containing, in addition, a large quantity of blood-coloured, 
semi-fluid exudation-matter. Tlie spleen was filled to repletion 
with black blood, and the liver and kidneys were similarly 
affected. The lungs were also in a congested state; their struc- 
ture, however, was normal. Extravasaticms of blood, small in 
amount, had taken place into the substance of tlie heart, as also 
beneath the lining membrane of the auricles and ventricles, par-, 
ticularly of the left ventricle. 
