360 ON THE ERGOT OF RYE IN PARTURITION. 
she had “spued” it up again: he then put it down her nostrils, 
and she had been sick ever since ; and, as he had no skill him¬ 
self, and thought that two skilful men were better than one, he 
wanted me now to visit her. I did so promptly, and found her 
standing trembling all over. The pulse was imperceptible; the 
extremities icy cold; respiration accelerated; and she had been 
only twice down since she became unwell. 
I prognosticated that death was near at hand ; nevertheless I 
opened the jugular vein, and after about three quarts of black- 
coloured blood had escaped she lay down, and had violent con¬ 
vulsive twitchings for about ten minutes. I threw up a clyster, 
and applied warm fomentations to the abdomen. The clyster 
was returned with a few balls of faeces. She got up, but in 
about eight minutes again lay down, discharged a considerable 
quantity of faeces, struggled, and died. 
On dissection I found a large faecal accumulation, very dry, 
near the termination of the colon, and immediately preceding it 
was a quantity of sand, gravel, stones, coal, pins, apiece of wire, 
a piece of sheet iron, and half a stub-nail: the whole weighed 
forty-one imperial ounces. There was also a rupture of the 
villous and muscular coat of the intestines, about five inches in 
length, with spots of inflammation irregularly scattered on the 
large intestines. The bladder was quite empty ; a portion of the 
villous coat of the stomach was inflamed, with eight bots adher¬ 
ing to the cuticular coat. The lungs were dark, and congested 
with blood. 
THE NON-EFFICACY OF THE ERGOT OF RYE ON 
THE COW IN PARTURITION. 
By Mr. Harrison, F.S., Lancaster . 
m 
The very flattering account of the medicinal powers of the 
Secale Cornutum in protracted parturition, given in a former 
number of The Veterinarian by Mr. Allison, induced me, in 
a tedious case to which I was called, to test its effects; but, 
with much regret, I am compelled to acknowledge that, during 
the whole time it was administered (and, to insure its more per¬ 
fect action upon the system, I slowly poured it down the oeso¬ 
phagus in order to avoid, if I could, the possibility of its enter¬ 
ing the rumen), no perceptible contractions of the uterus ensued; 
neither was she incommoded by it in any even in the slight¬ 
est manner, thereby affording a demonstrative proof of the 
uncertainty of its operation, and totally subverting any ideas of 
