258 RUPTURE OF THE DOUBLE COLON IN A HORSE. 
buinen, or azotized food. Many other cases I have gleaned, and 
in all it has occurred when they have been deprived of food con- 
taining the nitrogenous product; and in the cases of recovery, or, 
in other words, in which it does not act as a poison, is in accord- 
ance with this. When the yew is eaten, whether such animals 
are living on food that is albuminous or azotized in the maximum, 
or on food in which there is a deficiency of the nitrogenous principle. 
I lay claim to being the first who has hinted a theory in conformity 
with this opinion as to the action of vegetable poisons on animals, 
and trust that this very interesting subject will be followed up by 
more able hands than mine. 
Donkeys, some say, are obnoxious to the poison of yew. Be it 
so : allowance must be made for the small portion of food they 
take in at any time, knowing that they will browse for hours on a 
few bramble-leaves. Others say that they have known cattle and 
sheep eat it ; but the season of the year must be taken into con- 
sideration, and it has happened, on questioning them, that this has 
occurred at a time when the graminous food is well impregnated 
with vegetable albumen. 
Some, again, say that it is the male yew that is poisonous. I 
leave it for you to speak as to its character, having sent you a 
sample of the yew — a portion of the tree that poisoned those which 
afforded this subject matter. I hope this will, through the medium 
of The Veterinarian, give publicity as to its fatal effects; and, 
as Mr. Spooner justly observes, such cases cannot be made too 
widely known, as they tend to public good. 
In concluding this subject, I was glad to find Mr. Morton’s 
Chart on Poisons bears me out in the sudden way in which death 
takes place from vegetable poisonous agents. 
A CASE OF RUPTURE OF THE DOUBLE COLON IN 
A HORSE. 
By Mr. W. Ernes, London. 
A BLACK cart horse, five years old, the property of the North 
Country Coal Company, was, on the 22d of February last, ordered 
to lay by for a few days, and have a dose of opening medicine. 
The physic operated moderately, and, after it had set he was al- 
lowed to walk about the stable during the day, for exercise, and to 
consume the remains of the provender left by the other horses, 
from twenty to twenty-five in number. 
