RED-WATER IN CATTLE. 
405 
of the cutaneous and pulmonary transpiration, acquire a motion 
towards "the skin and lungs, which must be accelerated by the cir- 
culation of the blood. 
By this evaporation, the laws of the mixture of dissimilar 
liquids, separated by a membrane, must be essentially modified. 
The passage of the food dissolved in the digestive canal and of the 
lymph into the bloodvessels, the expulsion of the nutritive fluid out 
of the minuter bloodvessels, the uniform distribution of these fluids 
in the body, the absorbent power of the membranes and skins, 
which, under the actual pressure, are permeable for the liquids in 
contact with them, are under the influence of the difference in the 
atmospherical pressure, which is caused by the evaporation of the 
fluids of the skin and lungs. 
The juices and fluids of the body distribute themselves, ac- 
cording to the thickness of the walls of the vessels, and their per- 
meability for these fluids, uniformly through the whole body ; and 
the influence which a residence in dry or in moist air, at great 
elevations, or at the level of the sea, may exert on the health, in so 
far as the evaporation may thus be accelerated or retarded, requires 
no special explanation ; while, on the other hand, the suppression 
of the cutaneous transpiration must be followed by a disturbance 
of this motion, in consequence of which the normal process is 
changed where this occurs. 
Red- water in Cattle. 
[From the “Farmer’s Magazine” for June 1848]. 
For the past few weeks, red-water in cows, the second or third 
week after calving, has prevailed to a considerable extent in this dis- 
trict (Ayrshire.) This disease has been usually divided into the acute 
and chronic, the former of which at present prevails as an epidemic, 
and has been fatal in several cases. Like many other diseases, 
the state of the atmosphere must exercise a powerful influence, it 
being seldom found that one dairy is attacked without others in the 
neighbourhood also suffering. 
The causes are obscure and difficult to discover. It is generally 
attributed to the nature of the food, and sometimes to the presence 
of acrimonious and poisonous plants, drinking bad or stagnant 
water, to the scanty supply of water on dry soils, low marsh lands, 
&c. The presence of the complaint at this time, however, shews 
that it is not always connected with these exciting causes, as the 
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