IN CATTLE. 
465 
sionally be employed with advantage in the treatment of the 
diseases of cattle, and particularly of this disease, must, when 
frequently and habitually drunk, produce much and perhaps fatal 
inflammation of the mucous coat of the intestines : but the 
prime agent was the decomposed vegetable matter which the 
water contained — the gluten of the wheat in the highest state 
of putridity. Putrid vegetable matter is one of the most de- 
structive sedative poisons that is known, and under whose fatal 
influence every vital action is diminished — every function im- 
paired or suspended. 
How accurately do these unscientific witnesses describe its 
progress. The animals scarcely drink of the empoisoned stream 
ere the coat becomes rough and staring — the insensible perspira- 
tion is diminished or ceases. The quantity of milk is lessened — 
each cow gives from two to three quarts less every day. So far 
as this secretion is concerned, every animal — those that are ulti- 
mately lost and those that have strength to bear up against the 
depressing influence to which they are subjected — every animal 
exhibits the character and power of the poison. They who are 
accustomed to cows begin to look somewhat fearfully around 
them when the milk diminishes; and if it becomes suspended, 
they are perfectly assured that danger or death is at hand. The 
appetite is impaired : in frequent or continual contact with a 
fluid so nauseous and debilitating, can the villous coat of the 
stomach retain its healthy character, or will there be a desire 
for or relish of food? The loss of condition — the rapid 
wasting is the natural and necessary consequence of dimi- 
nished ingestion of food, to say nothing of the lethean influence 
of the poison on every organ concerned in the digestion of the 
aliment. Then, — not at first — say the witnesses, comes the 
purging, the consequence of the long-continued presence of the 
poison in the intestines — the consequence of the general impair- 
ment of the system — the indication of the breaking up of the 
constitution. 
There is a peculiarity about cattle subjecting them to the fatal 
influence of agents like those whose mischievous course has been 
here traced. Cattle are destined to supply us with food while 
living, as well as after death. The greatest quantity of food, and 
the greatest profit to the owner, are yielded while they are living. 
To fit them for this, nature has given a digestive apparatus by 
means of which every particle of nutriment is extracted from their 
food ; and the digestive organs are always and actively at work. 
In the improved system of husbandry the thing goes much 
farther — the digestive functions are strained to the utmost point — 
the system of early maturity which is so generally and profitably 
