22 
ON DRENCHING HORSES AND CATTLE. 
drench are sometimes to be found in the trachea. It must then 
present an obstruction calculated to produce formidable, if not al- 
ways fatal, consequences. This I have found to be the case in cows, 
especially where the spinal marrow has been affected. It will hap- 
pen even when the drench has been administered with the greatest 
care ; a fact which would ever make me protest against making the 
unsuccessful operator responsible in law for his failure. If made 
responsible for the result of unsuccessful drenching, why not for 
that of balling 1 Who does not know that, with all that science and 
experience can suggest, death will sometimes ensue from the ad- 
ministration of a ball, and in such a manner as the. most minute in- 
quiry previous to death could not elucidate, and which a post mor- 
tem examination will prove to have been attributable to malforma- 
tion, previous improper treatment or trickery, or other circum- 
stances beyond the professional attendant’s controul] Who can 
doubt it after reading the apparently intricate case described in 
so masterly a manner by M. Renault in The VETERINARIAN of 
October, 1839 1 
I remember being called upon, with Mr. White, as far back as 
1807, to see a horse belonging to the Duke of Sussex, then in De- 
vonshire, and which died' before our arrival. At the request of his 
Royal Highness the horse was opened, and we found all the organs 
in a perfectly healthy state. We were lost in astonishment until 
I discovered a ball wrapped in paper lodged in the oesophagus, 
which accounted for the death of the animal, without necessarily 
fixing a stigma on the individual who had administered the ball. 
I might adduce cases many of which would go far to prove that 
hereditary defects in the animal could sometimes readily account 
for effects of this class, otherwise altogether mysterious. To be 
candid, I speak feelingly on the subject, being at this moment, 
though after a considerable lapse of time, subjected to the unmerited 
censure of a gentleman of this island, the death of whose mare was, 
through misrepresentation, attributed to the manner in which I 
gave her a ball ; but the post-mortem examination of which proved, 
beyond all contradiction, that death ensued from causes perfectly 
independent of any act or treatment of mine. 
To return to the question. It must nevertheless be admitted, that, 
too frequently, failure must be attributed to a want of attention and 
expertness. I have lately been called to three valuable dogs, all 
beyond recovery, and victims of an improper mode of drenching. 
Due regard must certainly be had to the kind of instrument used 
in the act. The common use of the horn will go far to account for 
the consequences which Professor Stewart is anxious to avert. The 
introduction of the large end into the animal’s mouth necessarily 
demands that expansion which incapacitates him from swallowing, 
