TAKING UP THE VEIN FOR BOG SPAVIN. 327 
tive had operated freely, and the animals were very desirous 
of food. The following day they were all convalescent. 
[Does it follow that the yew was the only poisoning 
vegetable in the above cases? May not the rhododendron 
have had something to do with it? We are not told what 
variety of this plant it was, the leaves of which were found by 
W. L. Burnett places many of them among suspicious 
plants, and states some of them to be deleterious. The 
Rhododendron ponticum is said by him to exude a nectareous 
juice, from which honey being made by bees, it possesses 
intoxicating and poisonous properties of a phrenitic kind, 
which is not only formidable in its symptoms, but also very 
lengthened in its duration. This plant is often found asso- 
ciated with the Azalea pontica , believed to be the JEgolethron 
of the Ancients ; and it was to many of the soldiers eating 
honey collected from such plants that the plague was attri- 
buted which afflicted the army of Xenophon, in the celebrated 
retreat of the 10,000.] 
TAKING UP THE VEIN (VENA SAPHENA MAJOR) 
FOR BOG SPAVIN. 
By the Same. 
A short time ago I attended a colt which had been 
operated upon by a Lancashire farrier, or blacksmith, for the 
cure of a bog spavin in each hock. The operation consisted 
in dissecting out the vein, and placing ligatures upon it. Sub- 
sequently, one leg became enormously swollen, and the skin 
very tense, but the other was not so much affected. The 
tumefaction extended from the fetlock to the sheath, where, 
as well as in the thigh, several abscesses formed. The poor 
animal had been in this condition for several weeks, but 
under proper treatment at length recovered, much to the 
satisfaction of the owner, who declares that he will never 
again have a case of bog spavin so “ doctored.” 
