334 PRACTICAL THOUGHTS ON PLENALVUS. 
5th December, 5 a.m. — Does not grunt half as much ; 
looks better ; bowels have responded freely to the action of 
the physic. Attendant points out three acorns, which he 
says were expelled with the faecal matter. Ordered all food 
to be withheld. Repeat medicine. 
Suffice it to say in about a couple of days the cow recovered 
convalescence, during which period all food was withheld. 
At the expiration of the time the contents of the rumen were 
sensibly reduced. As would naturally be supposed, the 
stools were of an inky hue. In this instance I was fully 
prepared, had she at any period been found not so well, to 
have recourse instantly to an operation. 
Remarks . — According to this case there seem to be, as 
stated by Professors Simonds and Brown, two distinct forms 
of acorn-poisoning — one in which there is no impaction, in 
which death results long after every acorn has been expelled 
the system, and which is not due to any astringent property 
in the acorn ; while in the other form the impaction of the 
rumen is a prominent symptom, where the omasum and abo- 
masum are clearly affected through the peculiar action of the 
acorns on those organs. 
Wheat may be said, under some circumstances, to produce 
the affection, as the following case points out : 
1st January, 1869, I was hastily summoned to attend 
some animals, the property of a farmer in this parish. Six 
heifers and two old cart horses had been turned into the 
farm-yard as usual during the night. The next morning the 
hoy, as usual, drove them to the pond to water, he having to 
drive them from thence, as he thought they would never 
have left off drinking. The horses then went to work, and 
one worked till two p.m., the other till half-past four p.m. 
All the morning the first was noticed to be dull, to hang at 
the collar, and to take no notice of the whip, and the other 
presented slight symptoms similar to the above. At two 
p.m. water was given to both horses, of which they readily 
partook; and about the same time the heifers, by some 
means or other, got the yard gate open, and were found in 
the pond partaking freely, with part of their faces thrust into 
the water. At three p.m. I was summoned to attend the 
horse, and one heifer was reported very unwell. On going 
into the yard I observed, under the barn doors, a rat’s hole, 
which had previously been stuffed from the outside with 
straw ; the straw was removed, and about a bushel of wheat 
was upon the ground. Behind the hole was about 120 
bushels of wheat stowed. 
The first horse lived about an hour, when she fell and 
