THE POISONING OF CATTLE WITH LEAD. 
161 
ill trouble,’ and allowed to pass as a visitation with which there 
is no use contending. And in other districts it is popularly known 
as the head disease , staggers, wudness in the head , $c., names gra- 
phically characteristic of the symptoms observed.” 
Being called in, ignorant as he was of the nature of the malady 
and hopeless of its cure, Mr. Cuming was, as a matter of course, 
expected “ to do something.” He tried one remedy ; he tried 
another. All to no purpose; the patient died. He essayed 
another and another plan of treatment. Still the patients died. 
“ Time rolled on, and the month of June — 46 brought with it a 
recurrence of the disease on the same farms as before, and with all 
its former fatality. I applied to its treatment all that the previous 
year’s experience, and the thoughts and inquiries of the inter- 
vening twelve months had suggested ; but, as usual, death in most 
cases closed the scene. I was, however, determined not to give up. 
I had observed in all the cases I examined in the summer — 45, as 
a thing worthy of being noted, but nothing further, that there was 
a large quantity of earthy matter — sand, pieces of brick, tiles, 
leather, &c. — in the passage from the second and third to the fourth 
stomach ; and in one case I collected and washed a portion of this 
foreign matter and laid it aside, thinking it of no use, however, but 
as a cabinet curiosity. In summer — 46, I invariably met with 
the same appearance, and on inquiry was told that all the beasts 
affected had been addicted to eating bones, old shoes, rags, or 
whatever trash they could get hold of. In making a post-mortem 
examination of the last fatal case of the disease which 1 saw, I 
was struck by the appearance among the earthy matter in the 
stomach of small particles of a soft, white, putty-like substance, 
and the idea of white paint ( carbonate of lead) immediately came 
into my mind. I collected and took with me a portion of this 
matter, and at the first convenient opportunity made an analytical 
examination of it ; the result of which was, such a quantity of car- 
bonate of lead as left no doubt of the cause of death, in this case 
at least. And on making an examination of similar matter taken 
from the stomachs of the previous year’s cases, I found exactly 
the same results. Being now satisfied that I had found a solution 
to my two years’ difficulty, I applied to the owners of the (dead) 
cattle for leave to exhume and examine two of them, on different 
farms, that had been buried without their stomachs being cut up. 
One of them had been eight, the other eleven weeks in the ground. 
I, however, managed in each ca!se to obtain a portion of the con- 
tents of the stomach free from any admixture, and on subjecting 
these to analysis, had my views still further confirmed by the large 
quantity of lead I obtained.” 
VOL. XXIII. 
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