TUBERCULAR ABSCESS IN A STIRK. 
189 
sence of the tumour ; but rather, that the tympany was pro- 
duced by the effects of the tumour upon the supply of nerve 
energy to the stomachs, arresting or retarding to an unusual 
length the process of digestion and assimilation, favouring 
the chemical decomposition and evolution of gaseous com- 
pounds from the aliment, and the passage of crude undigested 
matter into the intestinal canal, all combining to produce the 
symptoms that were shown. That such was the case is fur- 
ther borne out by the partial success of the treatment, so far 
as the conditional states of the animal indicated such pro- 
ceedings ; for every return of tympanitis and torpid intestinal 
function yielded to the measures adopted, so far as they were 
only the effects of a cause, which, latent as it was, still ex- 
isted and progressed. 
I suppose, from the dry vegetable matter in the rumen, 
and the inflammability of the gases which escaped when the 
canula was introduced, on the second day, that they were 
constituted largely of the carburets of hydrogen. The reason 
why chlorine in some form was not administered, is the fact 
that it does not act upon some of the compounds of carbon 
and hydrogen in the dark ; hence, from the improbability of 
the sun beaming in the animal’s rumen, the want of success 
attending its previous exhibition in analogous CRses ; — our 
faith has been shaken upon the utility of it, in a stage of 
gastric affections in oxen, &c. Although chlorine has been 
much lauded as an agent calculated by its great affinity for 
hydrogen to break up many of its binary compounds, I have 
nevertheless frequently witnessed its administration followed 
by results worse than useless, even in those cases of tympany 
where, from the long existence of chemical decomposition in 
the rumen, we were almost certain to have some compound 
of hydrogen evolved. 
The introduction of its compounds into the list of 
medicines, backed by the undeniable fact of the great 
affinity of this elementary substance for hydrogen, has led to 
its adoption in cases of distended rumen, as if it had been a 
panacea for such affections under all their phases. Che- 
mists, however, have long since demonstrated, that under 
conditional circumstances, it will not decompose some of the 
compounds of hydrogen. Hence it appears to have been a 
crochet upon which men hung the harp of their opinions, 
without questioning for themselves its practical utility. 
We will now look to the supposed and most probable origin 
of the tumour. It will be remembered that some enlarged 
lymphatic glands were found around the sac, which contained 
in their texture some of that gritty, yellow, opaque, friable, 
xxvi. 26 
