314 DISTENTION OF THE STOMACHS OF A COW. 
P.S. Perhaps all veterinarians will not agree with me as to 
the medicine I make use of as a purgative in cattle, nor, perhaps, 
as to the quantity I adminstered ; as I have heard it said by some 
veterinarians, that aloes is not a good purgative in cattle, and 
also that they take a less dose than horses; but so far as my 
experience goes, I have always found aloes a good purgative in 
cattle, and preferable to any other; and also found cattle to take 
larger doses of all medicines than I have been in the habit of 
administering to horses to produce the same effect. 
Our friend Mr. Cotchiefer, the old pupil of one of us, will 
please to accept our thanks for the communication of this very 
interesting case. The value of the stomach-pump and injection- 
syringe are not sufficiently appreciated in veterinary practice. 
This animal was manifestly saved by them. They should be 
found in the establishment of every veterinary surgeon, and the 
practitioner on cattle cannot do without them. 
The idea of injecting water into the rumen until vomiting was 
produced does Mr. Cotchiefer much credit. 
To his theory of the comparative doses of medicines as admi¬ 
nistered to the horse and to cattle we must however demur. If 
a greater dose of purgative medicine may be safely given to the 
cow than to the horse, it is on account of the form in which it is 
exhibited. All cattle medicines must be given in solution. A ball 
would break through the floor of the canal which leads from the 
oesophagus to the third and fourth stomachs, and enter the rumen, 
and nauseate, and not purge. A liquid only will pass on to the 
manyplus and the true stomach ; and a medicine given in solu¬ 
tion, and extending over a larger surface, will not only operate 
more effectually, but more safely; taking likewise into the account, 
that there is no complicated cellular structure in the large intes¬ 
tines to detain the purgative and cause inflammation. 
A larger dose than the horse will bear may, therefore, be safely 
administered to cattle; and there are cases, like the present, when, 
from the torpid state of the alimentary canal, the exhibition of a 
very strong purgative is absolutely necessary. When Mr. C. 
administered two ounces of aloes at once, in engorgement of the 
rumen and manyplus, he did not give a grain too much. 
It should not be forgotten, however, that the very form of the 
medicine, which ensures its safety, ensures likewise its speedier 
and more copious effect. 
We have purged quite as much as we wanted with three or four 
drachms of aloes; and it is the impunity with which a greater 
dose may generally be given to cattle that has gradually led to its 
