468 
ON THE PREVAILING EPIDEMIC 
relaxed state of the bowels ensues, when wheat flour gruel should 
be substituted for it. As regards a local remedy for the mouth, 
and other ulcerated parts, I know of no better than the chlorinated 
solutions, which quickly destroy the foetor emitted from them, and 
induce in them an healthy action. 
As regards a prophylactic, I may mention that aperients have 
been given, and the after-attack, for there has been some, has been 
considered milder. Bleeding has been resorted to, and the period 
of invasion has appeared to have been protracted by it, though not 
mitigated in its form; and, lastly, setons in the dewlaps have been 
inserted, but as yet with undecided benefit. 
I remain, faithfully your’s, 
C. Snewing, V.S. 
Rugby, May 10. 
[The following conversation took place at the Second Anniversary 
Meeting of the Royal Agricultural Society of England. The 
account of it is also extracted from The Farmers’ Magazine,” 
the Editor of this Journal being then confined by illness.] 
Dr, Whitlaw expressed his opinion on the cause of the late 
epidemic amongst cattle, and referred to the writings of Linnaeus 
for corroboration of his views. He declared his full persuasion of 
the deleterious nature of the butter-cups, and other species of ra¬ 
nunculus in pastures, to the cattle feeding on them, attributing to 
the poisonous properties of these plants not only the recent epide¬ 
mic, but all former attacks of the kind; rendering the animals 
poor and unwholesome as food. He would, therefore, recommend 
to the society and the public to try the experiment of ploughing 
up the old pastures, saturated as they were already with the poi¬ 
sonous exudation of deleterious weeds. He would also refer to 
the evil effects of bringing animals to such a degree of obesity that 
their fat might be literally termed neither more nor less than the 
' essential oil of dung.’ 
The Chairman—the Duke of Richmond —said, that butter¬ 
cups were no novelties in our pastures, and, therefore, that if they 
were indeed the cause of the distemper in question, why, he 
would ask, had we not had it before 1 Besides, it would be pre¬ 
sumptuous in any man to assert the cause of a disease before 
gleaning from every quarter the experience on which he was to 
found his reasonings. This disease had made its appearance, and 
the society having sent a request to each of its members for facts 
on which to form their judgment, had given to them the best prac¬ 
tical remedies they could obtain for the primary symptoms; and he 
firmly trusted that the motto of this society, Practice with science,” 
