60 
CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 
mouth of the animal, the presence of a foreign body will prevent 
the deglutition of it, and the diagnosis will be no longer doubtful. 
M. Gelle says that he has saved the lives of two cows by this 
simple experiment. The symptoms were obscure. The proprietors 
had not seen the animals swallow any large or hard body, but the 
return of the fluid put an end to all doubt; and, by means of the 
probang, the foreign body was driven on into the paunch, and the 
patient was saved. 
M. Gelle concludes this chapter by observing, that it is always 
dangerous to cast an animal that is blown, for there will be, too 
often, some mortal rupture, whether of one of the stomachs or the 
diaphragm; therefore, before he casts them, he uniformly punctures 
the paunch. He adds, “ the operation of oesophagotomy ought 
always to be the dernier resort, and never to be practised until all 
other means have failed. I am astonished to hear a veterinary sur¬ 
geon say that he has had recourse to it, on account of an apple be¬ 
coming impacted in the gullet. He surely had neglected to apply 
a little oil in order to make it pass more readily through the canal. 
When, however, the foreign body is irregularly formed, as are 
some potatoes, turnips, and other roots, and that often have their 
extremities bent or convoluted, or that are evidently too large to be 
forced along the gullet, then the sooner the operation of ocsophago- 
tomy is performed the better; for, in attempting to force such bodies 
on, we are but uselessly fatiguing the animal, or needlessly rup¬ 
turing the oesophagus.” 
THE DESTRUCTIVE EFFECT OF NEW WHEAT ON 
SHEEP. 
By Mr. John Hawes, V.S., Taunton. 
In the month of September in the last year, a flock of sheep, 
more than 200 in number, strayed into a field where was a quan¬ 
tity of wheat that had not been carried in consequence of the un¬ 
favourable state of the weather. They fed rather bountifully on it 
before they were discovered by the shepherd, when they were 
immediately removed to the pasture on which they had previously 
been grazing, and no further notice was taken of them until the 
following day, when four of them were found dead, and several 
others were evidently ill. To all that evinced any symptoms of 
disease, Epsom salts and castor oil were immediately given: but 
on the following morning, finding that twenty-eight had already 
died, and nearly as many more were almost dead, the owner sent 
for me, as is too frequently the case, when it was too late to be of 
much service. 
