409 
THE CROCHLES IN CATTLE. 
By Mr. J. Tait Portsoy, N.B. 
“ No man was ever so completely skilled in the conduct of life, as not to receive 
new information from age and experience.” 
M essrs. Editors, 
I now beg to hand you an account of a disease which is very 
prevalent in this country ; and if it prevails in England, I, as 
well as a great many more of your readers in this quarter, would 
be glad to know what remediable measures are there adopted for 
its removal. 
During the course of my practice here, I have directed much 
of my attention to this disease, generally termed, among the 
country people, u Crochles.” It appears to me to be dependent 
on the state of improvement to which the lands may be brought, 
and the facility given to the water to run off; as in those lands 
where there is much uncultivated ground, and where, from a 
paucity of drains, the water is allowed to remain on the surface 
and form a marsh, this disease is much more prevalent, and in 
many cases proves fatal. I am the more inclined to ascribe the 
disease to this as a primary cause, as in other soils, not of a re¬ 
tentive bottom, and where drainage has been attended to, the 
disease has never appeared, except in its very mildest form. The 
cattle in the upper parts of the parishes of Fordyce, Ordiquhill, 
and Grange, are particularly subject to this disease in its most 
malignant form. These lands are marshy in the highest degree, 
and intersected by large patches of moss, when the water is 
allowed to become stagnant, or, if that is carried off, it is, in 
many cases, only conveyed from the moss to a plot of cultivated 
ground, thereby extending rather than checking the tendency to 
disease among their cattle, by supplying them with very bad 
grass. I have observed that cows generally become affected 
with this disease in the .spring, or a few months previously to 
calving. They do not appear to be the only animals subject to 
its attacks.—About two years ago, at Cullen-House, I saw one 
of Lord Seafield’s red deer labouring under a very severe attack 
of it. On examining him, I found a good deal of cedematous 
swelling existing about the limbs; the joints much enlarged; the 
gait of the animal at the same time proving that the whole body 
was similarly affected. It was pitiable to see one of the “ fleetest 
of the forest” so completely overcome as to be unable to move 
from the place on which he stood. I advised that he should be 
removed to a change of pasture. This had the desired effect, and 
in a few months he was in all his pristine glory. About twelve 
