CASES OF CATTLE PRACTICE. 
‘281 
self evident that, if the virus of rabies contagiosa can only be con- 
veyed from one animal to another by the process of direct inocula- 
tion, the prehensile papillae of the tongue are just as capable of 
effecting this by an apparent act of kindness on the part of the 
animal, and without the fears of the individual so treated being 
alarmed, as can be done by laceration with the teeth and the 
infliction of a bite, so as to excite fears of the most direful conse- 
quences. 
The uses of these papillae, therefore, are not subservient to the 
functions of taste, but rather to those of prehension and retention 
of solid and fluid food. The ox, with his free tongue, rolls the 
herbage of the meadow into a tuft before he tears it through with 
his incisors and palatine pad ; and he also rasps and cleans his own 
coat or that of his neighbour with its rough and prickly surface. In 
the dog and cat it is the sole agent by means of which the fluids 
are conveyed to the mouth by that action called “ lapping.” Such 
consequences entirely result from the influence of the lingualis 
muscle on the deep surface of the investing membrane ; and as the 
panniculus carnosus muscle raises the hairs, spines, &c., on the 
surface of the body, either to free it from some source of irritation 
or to act as a means of defence, so does this muscle act on the 
papillae of the tongue, by erecting them and setting them on edge, 
serve an equally important part in the prehension, retention, and 
conveyance of the food from the lips to the pharynx. 
The tongue of the herbivorous and graminivorous animals, 
therefore, may be considered as performing a compound function. 
Not only is it the organ of taste, which latter property resides 
chiefly in the investing membrane of the base along the sides and 
under surface, and in the intervals between the rows or tiers of its 
papillary appendages, but a more important office would seem to 
be fulfilled by its length, freedom, strong muscular power, and the 
existence and peculiar arrangement of its papillae in the prehension 
and retention of food, in its insalivation, and in the primary part of 
deglutition. 
[To be continued.] 
CASES OF CATTLE PRACTICE. 
By Mr. W. Fox WILKINSON. 
CASE I. — A few weeks ago I was called upon to attend a cow 
that had been in labour about seven hours. The owner and an old 
cowleech had in vain been struggling with her, and at length, weary 
and “ dead beat,” gave the case up as hopeless. 
VOL, XVIII. Q q 
