PATHOLOGY AND GENERAL TREATMENT OF CATTLE. 67 
sider it is produced from the want of azote, or the alkalescent 
principle in the produce of some soils, and an excess of acidity- 
in the digestive viscera of the animal. The blood, from its ab- 
sorption, becomes highly seriferous. It is carried off by the 
kidneys holding some of the colouring matter of the crassamen- 
tum in solution, which colour is modified by its excess or want. 
Now cattle, from an inherent cause, point out that there is 
an abundance of acid in their stomachs, from the fact of their 
eating earthy matter in this disorder ; and I have always ob- 
served that, on turning an animal out, the first thing he devours 
is the earth, or, if in the cow-house, the mud wall : besides, 
alkalies as well as chalky substances cure it. A very popular 
remedy is the powder of common slate. 
Some look on this disorder as an inflammatory one of the kid- 
neys, but, in my opinion, it is in the produce of the soil, under 
certain conditional influences; and hundreds of cattle pass over 
it, without our knowledge, and without any premonitory symp- 
toms whatever. The excretion from the kidneys, when nitric 
acid is dropped into it, is instantly albuminated, and so it is, 
if heat is applied. Now this shews that the urine is serous, as 
this fluid — serum, — when in the blood, holds it in solution. In 
red-water that arises idiopathically, we never see coagulated 
blood, but only in haematuria occidentals. — A word or two on 
artificially manuring our soil, which is now the rage of the day, 
may be forgiven. 
Excesses of any sort do not cause good results : the time 
may come, when the besprinkling our land with such various 
imposts may prove a curse instead of a blessing. Our healthy 
atmosphere may be sown with poisonous effluvia, evolved from 
products of foreign climes, and diseases enlisted amongst our- 
selves and our quadrupeds. In short, our soil, year after year, 
is continually imbuing with poisonous bodies : our seed-wheat is 
commixed with arsenic and copper, and various other substances, 
for the prevention of disease. 
In a paper sent a few years ago to Professor Sewell, I car- 
ried my opinion so far as to say, that the sowing so much 
arsenic, &c. with the grain was the cause of the late epizootic 
in our cattle; but, perhaps, ere long such an opinion may be 
verified in some form or other, as we become more intimately 
acquainted with the all-searching eye of agricultural chemistry 
and vegetable physiology. In conclusion, I again repeat, and 
agree with Mr. Bickford, of Kingsbridge, that I do not see how a 
thorough acquaintance with the diseases of our different kinds of 
stock can be obtained at the College, practically ; many of which 
are accidental, and of a subitaneous character, that never can 
