304 
HEVIKW. —CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 
pientS; through the means of a pneumatic trough filled with dis¬ 
tilled water, the gas yet retained a most disagreeable smell. It 
was colourless, and contained three-fifths of carbonic acid gas, and 
two-fifths of carbonic oxide gas. 
The analysis of another vessel, taken a few days afterwards 
from the rumen of another cow that was hoven, contained the same 
chemical elements, but the carbonic and gas amounted to four- 
fifths of the whole. 
Gmelin, Avho also decomposed this gas, obtained from the paunch 
of a cow that was hoven from eating an immoderate quantity of 
trefoil, 80 parts of hydro-sulphuric acid, 15 of carburetted hy¬ 
drogen, and 5 of carbonic acid. 
M. Lassaigne, who also occupied himself with the analyzation of 
the chemical composition of the gas obtained from the paunch of a 
hoven cow, and experimented on three hours afterwards, found 29 
parts of carbonic acid gas, 14.7 of oxygen gas, 6 of carburetted hydro¬ 
gen gas, and 50.3 of azote. 
The carburetted hydrogen contained in the gas held in its com¬ 
position a middle place between the proto and the deuto-carburetted 
hydrogen. It was formed of two parts of hydrogen and one and a 
half of carbon. 
The analysis of M. Plucher shews the predominance of the car¬ 
bonic acid in the gas submitted to his examination; the hydro- 
sulphuric acid formed four-fifths of that submitted to the investiga¬ 
tion of Gmelin; while the carbonic acid formed a half, and the 
carbonic acid only a quarter, of that on which M. Lassaigne ex¬ 
perimented . 
What does this difference in the result of the analyses, conducted 
by men whose reputation stands so high, prove I Either that the 
causes of the meteorization were not the same in the different ani¬ 
mals from which the gases were collected, or that the circumstances 
of the animal or the periods of the disease were different. It is, 
perhaps, this difference in the chemical composition of the gas 
which has caused the use of ammonia and other alkalies by a great 
number of veterinary surgeons, and sulphuric ether by others, and 
the spirit of balm (melissa) mingled in the mucilagnous drinks of 
others. 
The reader will find some very useful remarks on the nature of 
these gases, and the remedies to be employed in hoove, in the 4th 
volume of The Veterinarian, p. 337. It is extracted from the 
Recueil de Med. Vet. 
