PALSY IN CATTLE. 
m 
Causes continued. Tail Slip . — Some singular causes of this 
disease have been assigned, and among the rest that supposed 
origin of almost every ailment of cattle, tail sooken or tail slip. 
Professor Dick, of Edinburgh, has given a very humorous account 
of this. “Is there loss of appetite, of flesh, or of strength ? — the 
tail is examined, and the disease is pronounced to be the tail slip : 
is the animal hide-bound? — it is the effect of the tail slip : or 
has paralysis of the extremities commenced ? — it is produced by 
the tail slip. The disease soon passes along the cow’s tail to the 
back, and the animal loses the use of its legs.” 
The tail of the ox, like that of other animals, was given to him 
partly or principally as a defence against the attacks of the insects 
by which he is annoyed. It is formed like a common whip. The 
bones become gradually smaller towards the tip of the tail ; at their 
termination is found a soft space, and beyond this a firm carti- 
laginous portion to which are attached the long hairs by means 
of which the flies are driven away. The bones are the handle of 
the whip, the soft part is the connecting medium between the 
handle and the thong, and the cartilaginous portion with the 
hairs form the lash. The country people, or the country prac- 
titioners, unable to comprehend this, are frightened at the soft 
place which they find, and imagine that a portion of the tail has 
slipped from its natural situation, and that some great mischief 
must ensue, and, generally, loss of power in the whole spine. 
Stagnation. — Mr. Knowles gives a more scientific and erudite 
account of the matter. He calls this disease “ The Crook,” and 
says that it begins at the heart. “ The heart is the cistern of 
the bloodvessels, and the blood being thrown too fast from the 
cavity of the heart into the arteries, and the arteries throwing it 
too fast into the veins, they become overloaded ; then, when a 
coldness is brought on the whole frame, by cold dry winds, this 
disease comes on, by which the whole body is disordered, one 
vessel forcing another, till a stagnation is brought on.” What 
measures these gentlemen adopt in order to remove the evil we 
will presently inquire ; but it is time to proceed to the lesions 
which are found after death. 
Post-mortem Appearances. — We have more opportunity 
of observing the lesions after death in these animals than in the 
horse. They are mostly slaughtered while they may be of some 
use to the butcher, rather than left to die ; but we must not 
say what always becomes of those to whom the disease and not 
the knife puts an end. There is usually inflammation both of the 
membranes of the spinal chord, and of the chord itself about 
the dorso-lumbar, the lumbar, and the sacral regions. In lin- 
gering cases 1 have seen decided thickening of the membranes — 
