Kidd V. Royal Agricultural Society of England. 493 
The stock was purchased some time in the month of September ; it was taken 
from grass, and at Booth Ferry the beasts were put immediately on their 
I 7 lbs. of cake. No injury whatever followed. They ate their 7 lbs. of cake 
i daily down to the month of February, when the supply ran short. But I should 
tell you, further, that at Booth Ferry there were not only feeding stock, but 
. also cows, and the cows had a pound less of cake. I am told that the quantity 
' supplied at Airmyn Pastures was usually as great as that supplied at Booth 
■ Ferry ; but at the time in question, when this cake was supplied, they had 
; less than the usual quantity ; and that there the cake was something like 
: 4^ lbs. instead of 7 lbs., which was the quantity supplied at Booth Ferry. 
( Now that being the state of things some time in the month of January 
: Mr. Wells received from Mr. Ayre a Circular which has been read to you in 
which Mr. Ayre offered him " Triangle best linseed cake." Before that time he 
\ had had cake which had been obtained from Driffield, where I believe they 
' make only one sort of cake, and the beasts had eaten that cake with perfect 
impuuity the whole time. 
Well, gentlemen, the cake arrived, one ton at Booth Ferry and one ton at 
Airmyn Pastures, and there is no pretence whatever for saying that anything 
' had happened to the cake at all in the transit from Hull, or after it had been 
i deUvered. After the aiTival of the cake, on the 16th, Mr. Wells left home in 
i the morning, he came home again in the evening, and to his surprise, aud 
t horror, one might almost say, he found that immediately after the cake had 
i been given to the beasts they fell, all of them, immediately ill. One cow he 
found was dead : he found the other cows, a bull, heifers, and steers, all 
1 distended, and the rest of the stock all moaning and in a state of great distress. 
The cow that was lost was a valuable Shorthorn. All the cattle had been 
; in jDerfect health that morning. I shall call before you the people who gave 
I them their food, and they will tell you that in less than half an hour after the 
cake was given to the beasts this thing occuiTed. You know the symptoms of 
I illness : they were violently purged, their dung was black and offensive, and in 
the course of the afternoon, notwithstanding the greatest efforts made by 
I administering oil to the poor beasts, one of them died, and the rest had a very 
: narrow escape of their lives, and continued ill for several days. That is what 
occurred at Booth Ferry. 
At Ainnyn Pastures that morning the cake had been given to the stock and 
, exactly the same results followed, except that the quantity given being rather 
j less, although the stock was all ill, and suffered the whole of that day, not one 
• of them died ; but they all recovered. Now you know, gentlemen, that was 
i immediately after the administration of this food to them, and without the 
: smallest predisposing cause. Of course I do not know what my friend is 
' going to suggest. If he is going to suggest that this was caused by anything 
else than the administration of this cake, he will do so. Otherwise, if it was 
caused by the administration of this cake, what other result can you come to 
but that it was an unwholesome cake, a cake not fit for food, and containing 
I unquestionably either by reason of its mode of manufacture or by reason of 
1 its composition, things calculated to produce such results. 
I Great complaint has been made of the course pursued ; but now let us see 
I what Mr. Wells did. !My friend will not allow me to giv* in evidence the 
I course that he adopted with regard to Mr. Ayre although I proposed to read to 
I you a letter of the 16th of Febraary written by him to Mr. Ayre, that being 
, the very day in fact that this thing happened. My learned friend objected, 
I and successfully in point of Law, to your hearing that letter read. Whether 
I it was a thing which should have been kept out is another matter — we shall hear 
■ by the cross examination ; and probably before the cause is over, that letter will 
I come out. But still the next thing he did (I cannot put to you the reasons 
' why) was to send a letter with an account of this to the Agricultural Society. 
