678 
ON WOOD-EVIL AND MOOR-ILL. 
matism by a mere change of herbage, but neither of soil nor 
of climate. 
There is another farmer, whom I have known for many years, 
who had a particular field into which he turned all his cattle 
that were attacked by moor-ill, and they almost immediately 
were cured. lie has been obliged to part with that field, and he 
laments it ; for he has no longer a ready and certain means of get- 
ting rid of the disease. I could adduce many other facts of the 
same nature if it were necessary ; and perhaps I may be forgiven 
if I add, that I ought to be, and think I am, well acquainted with 
rheumatism in cattle, both in its chronic and its acute form, and 
from the calf in the stall to the sturdy ox. 
Mr. Mayer, in stating the causes of what he calls moor-ill, enu- 
merates bad food, bad water, leaves of the black willow, and 
luxuriant after-grass. They, or some of them, may be concerned 
in the production of wood-evil, or other complaints incident to cat- 
tle ; but they cannot always be adduced as the cause of moor-ill. 
As to Mr. Surginson, I agree with that gentleman in two par- 
ticulars : that the cause of moor-ill is very obscure, and that poor 
land is not the sole cause of it. I know very poor ground in 
various parts of my neighbourhood where the disease is almost 
or altogether unknown. 
As to what I call wood-evil, I take it to be nothing but con- 
stipation of the maniplus, and which will arise from various 
causes, and differ in its symptoms according to the difference of 
the cause. In this I am, in some measure, borne out by some 
modern as well as ancient authors, who use the terms wood-evil, 
moor-ill, pantas, maw-bound, and fardell-bound, indiscriminately, 
as indicating one and the same disease. 
I consider the disease moor-ill or wood-evil to be a kind of 
garget, without the swollen udder which will shew itself in 
plethoric cattle in May or June, and sometimes in after-grass 
time, or any time when the grass is luxuriant and the weather 
changeable. It is known among some farmers and graziers by 
the names body-garget, humours in the blood, &c. I have seen 
it without constipation ; and after the inflammation has subsided, 
and the bowels have been opened in consequence of bleeding 
and purgatives, I have seen the patients remain stiff and some- 
times lame for a certain period. A few diuretics, or tonic- 
diuretics, according to circumstances, constitute the whole art 
and mystery of treating t his stage and form of the disease. 
In conclusion, I beg to remark, that some of the cattle that la- 
boured under what I call moor-ill have been cured ; and others 
that were not thought worth medical treatment through the ap- 
proaching winter, have been destroyed, so that I cannot produce 
