44 MIDLAND COUNTIES VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
practitioners. Without further trespassing, gentlemen, upon your 
time, I will at once introduce my subject. 
Heemo-albuminuria in cattle is commonly known by the term 
red water, also bloody urine, moor-ill, black water, baematuria, &c. 
The former term, signifying that hsematine and albumen exist in 
the urine, thus almost at once, as it were, describing the nature of 
the complaint, is one for which we are indebted, I believe, to 
Professor Simonds. 
Perhaps of all the category of diseases which come within the 
scope of the veterinary practitioner, there are few of so old a type 
as red water. In our ancient works on farriery, before colleges were 
instituted, or perhaps thought of, we read of this disease ; and in our 
modern works on cattle pathology it still occupies a prominent 
place in their pages. 
It affects both young and old stock of all breeds, male and female; 
but according to Professor Simonds it prevails, at least in some parts 
of England, more amongst cows than oxen, and particularly after 
parturition. One of the reasons he assigns in part for this is — the 
change of food and management to which the animals are subjected, 
viz., the cow having prior to calving been kept on short commons, 
and then immediately after bringing forth her young being supplied 
with abundance of rich food, in order that she may give a great 
quantity of milk. The digestive system, unprepared for this, is con- 
sequently unable to sustain so sudden a change. It gives way, and 
thus cows, being subjected to this treatment, are more generally 
affected than oxen. 
But another idea as to the cause of this malady, and I think the 
prevailing one, is that of cattle being placed in low and wet pastures ; 
and this, in my opinion, has a great deal to do with it, as is pretty 
plainly shown by the malady being so frequent in the undrained parts 
of England, and likewise taking place in those seasons of the year 
when we expect changeable weather, viz., spring and autumn. Mr. 
Ford, in a letter to Mr. Youatt, which is mentioned in his work on 
“ Cattle Pathology,” states that red water used to be very prevalent 
in the neighbourhood of Etruria in Staffordshire. About twenty 
years from the time he wrote, and before the wet lands were drained, 
in a dairy of twenty or thirty cows two thirds of the number, he 
says, were afflicted with disease annually; but since the draining, not 
more than one or two animals have annually been attacked by it. 
Mr. Nobbs likewise, in writing to Mr. Youatt, states a case 
where a dairy was removed from a farm on a flinty soil to one on a 
strong clay, and every one of the cows, consisting of seventeen, were 
affected ; three of them dying, although they had all been charmed 
(an old custom which is happily dying out, and giving place to 
more sensible ideas). These two instances, with many others 
which I might enumerate, go a great way to prove that damp seasons 
and wet pastures have much to do in the production of haemo-albu- 
minuria. But again, we must not lose sight of the food as partici- 
pating in the cause ; for as in cows, so in oxen, this, though not 
perhaps in the same way, may assist in producing hsemo -albuminuria, 
