30 
CONSULTATIONS. 
plaint (red-water), was not so f at as she otherwise would have 
been. 
Post-mortem examination . — Encysted tumours, containing 
water as clear as crystal, covered the lungs. The abdominal vis- 
cera healthy. As she was sold to the butcher, I had not the 
opportunity of examining the kidneys, but the external appear- 
ance of the fat in which they had been embedded was perfectly 
healthy. I then examined the bladder, which, on emptying, I 
found to contain a quantity of coagulated blood ; and, on open- 
ing it, I observed several red excrescences, which appeared some- 
what like fungus haematodes. Your attention to, and opinion of, 
the appearances and cause, will oblige 
Your’s, ever faithfully, 
Thomas Walker. 
Rothley, May 1, 1841. 
P.S. — Betonica grows abundantly on the farm. Would it be 
likely to produce the disease ? 
My dear Sir, — In reference to the treatment of the epidemic, 
you are already in possession of a mass of information : I will pass 
on, and come to the curious appearance of the blood. 
Professor M. Renault, at the school of Alfort, states that a 
disease, bearing the character of an enzootic, shewed itself, in 
1831, among the horses of one of the largest proprietors of the 
Somme. He was assured that the primitive alteration, the essen- 
tial malady, was in the blood, which, whether taken from the dead 
or living animal, covered his hands without reddening them, and 
either did not coagulate, or formed a mass of a dirty grey colour, 
and contained a very small portion of fibrine : — vide Veterina- 
rian, vol. v, pages 51, 52. We may account for the above phe- 
nomena thus : — The crassamentum, in a very strong animal, is in 
a greater proportion to the serum than in a weak one, and the 
same difference takes place in diseases. By too severe exercise, 
heat, and malignant disorders, the cohesion of the blood is dis- 
solved, and it assumes an alkaline nature. 
As to the “ red-water of a peculiar kind,” Betonica grow s abun- 
dantly on the farm : Would it be likely to produce the disease ? 
Antonius Musa, physician to the Emperor Augustus Caesar, 
wrote a book on the virtues of w 7 ood betony ; notwithstanding, 
this herb is found to be only a mild corroborant. Should it be 
found to be the cause of this disease, it must act only mechani- 
cally, by the rough hairs w r ith which the leaves are covered. 
Herbs of an acrid quality, if they are not properly digested in 
the stomach, will cause inflammation in the urinary passages ; 
