530 
THE POISONING OF SEVERAL LAMBS 
puration. This favourable termination is announced by the dis- 
charge of healthy pus, and by the slow and progressive diminution 
of the symptoms, and especially of the pain. The application of 
the populeum ointment, emollient lotions, and gentle exercise will 
be favourable to this termination of the case. But it is not always 
that the practitioner must dare to hope for such a result ; and it 
will be his duty, especially when the tumefaction in increasing, 
to remove the engorged part of the cord, by ligature, before it 
reaches the abdomen ; for if he cannot divide the cord at the 
abdominal ring on a part as yet sound, — if he can only place his 
ligature on a substance which already is scirrhous, the disease 
will most rapidly spread upwards, and destroy the patient. 
The animal must here also be cast. The attachments of the 
cord to the surrounding parts must be cut, or rather torn, as 
perfectly as may be without injuring the principal vessels; and 
then a ligature must be tied above, on a part of the cord which is 
evidently sound. When the scirrhus reaches to the abdomen, 
the ligature will be altogether insufficient, and, as a last resource, 
the cord must be cauterized as deeply as possible. In order to 
effect this, the cord must be detached, as perfectly as may be, from 
the surrounding parts — it must be cut into interiorly — the lips 
of the wound must be separated as much as possible, and then an 
iron, heated red hot, in the form of a sound, and sufficiently long, 
and as large as a finger, must be thrust up into the scirrhous 
substance, following carefully the direction of that substance. 
The suppuration which necessarily results from such an operation 
will sometimes melt down the enlargement. 
[To be continued.] 
THE POISONING OF SEVERAL LAMBS BY THE 
NITRATE OF POTASH. 
By M. Saussol. 
At the beginning of 1832, several young lambs died almost 
daily on a farm called Bigue, belonging to M. Landes. Neither 
the shepherd nor the owner could guess at the cause of the 
mortality, and I was requested to visit the farm. Three had 
died on the morning of my arrival. 
I first examined the sheep-house. It was large enough for 
the number of lambs which it contained, but the ventilation and 
the locality were bad. It had no opening but the door, and it 
was built against a rock, on a wet, tenacious soil. The walls 
