AMONG CATT1JC IN IKKLAND IN 1842 . 587 
as forming an insurmountable objection against administering 
medicine to cattle in the form of balls. 
First — No solid matter can pass into the third stomach without 
being chewed a second time; therefore medicine in the form of 
balls, on being given, drops into the paunch. 
Secondly — No ruminant will regurgitate any disagreeable 
tasted matter, such as medicine, from the paunch to chew it a 
second time, and thus prepare it for admission into the third 
stomach, through which all medicine must pass previously to 
gaining admission into the fourth stomach, which is generally 
admitted to be the only one of the four that is at all subject to 
the salutary action of medicine. 
Thirdly — Solution of any solid substance, a medicine ball for 
example, is so very slow in the paunch of the ox, especially if 
the animal is labouring under an inflammatory attack, that the 
disease too frequently gains an irrecoverable advantage over the 
practitioner long before the medicine could be dissolved and take 
its effect, even if the coats of the paunch were susceptible of 
being acted upon by the contact of medicine sufficiently to be of 
any service. 
It must be admitted that purgative medicine, when given in the 
form of balls to cattle, very frequently produces an effect. But, 
from the facts which I have stated, it must be also admitted that 
their effect is uncertain, and invariably exceedingly slow. In 
order to produce their effect they must be first dissolved, which 
always takes a considerable time to accomplish. Mixed with the 
liquid contents of the paunch, a portion of the medicine may 
permeate into the third and fourth stomachs. But the relative 
quantity of that portion with the quantity given in the dose de- 
pends on accidental circumstances, and is, therefore, invariably 
uncertain. Independent of these objections, there is also another, 
and one too of paramount importance, i e. the entire contents 
of the paunch being impregnated with the medicine, the animal 
will not ruminate from the nauseous taste of the pellet which 
would be regurgitated, the consequence of which is, that fer- 
mentation takes place in the paunch from the accumulated 
vegetable matter remaining so long in that cavity, producing a 
series of derangements in the digestive organs which far more 
than counterbalance any little good effect that might otherwise 
possibly arise from the action of the medicine, if from chance it 
happened to make some little impression on the fourth stomach 
and intestines. 
In verification of these statements, I may mention that I 
have frequently found several balls in the paunch or first sto- 
mach of animals, in which the present distemper terminated 
