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CONSULTATIONS. 
No. XXVII. 
THE EFFECT OF A POOR AND SANDY SOIL ON THE 
IMPOVERISHMENT AND DEATH OF CATTLE. 
A tenant on this island — Iona — has lost, daring the last 
eighteen months, six cows and one horse, apparently from the 
same cause, and has at present a cow very ill. He requests me 
to write you a statement of the case, and to ask your opinion as to 
what you would advise, as to the treatment to be adopted as a 
preventive, or in case of other animals being similarly seized. 
At first the cow is observed to be languid, and to eat and drink 
little. The faeces hard, lumpy, and dry. Latterly she refuses both 
meat and drink, and, after lingering for some time, dies. On 
examination, the stomach is found very much distended with 
sand, and mixed with undigested food. All the other organs are 
apparently healthy. 
The treatment generally adopted has been large doses of Ep- 
som salts and cod-liver oil, and this last case has had, in addi- 
tion, castor and croton oil ; but the bowels are scarcely moved, 
and the faeces still hard, inclined to be dry. 
The soil of the island is, in general, sandy, and the pasture bare, 
but good. It is divided into small crofts, and each tenant can 
keep only from five to eight cows at the most. 
I may mention, that the other tenants are also, every now and 
then, losing a cow from the same cause, but more frequently the 
occupants of the west end, which is the most sandy soil. 
The tenants have more than once applied to me, in the absence 
of any veterinary surgeon, but I have told them that I am per- 
fectly ignorant of the diseases or treatment of cattle. 
I remain, dear Sir, your’s, &c. 
Professor Dick, 
Edinburgh. 
Reply to the foregoing Letter , by Professor Dick. 
It appears to me that the disease in the cows in your island 
arises entirely from the causes you mention, viz. the bareness of 
the pasture and the sandy nature of the soil. The bareness of 
the pasture renders it almost impossible for the cows to gather up 
