134 HiEMATURIA (ACUTE IlED-WATER) IN CATTLE. 
COWS eat the mercurialis and divers ranunculi without being in 
the slightest degree injured. 
It has also been said, that hgematuria may be produced by the 
resin of the young buds of resinous trees, or the astringent matter 
of oak leaves. Some chemical researches, made by M. Lecler, 
of Montbar, have enabled me to state, that the spring buds of the 
hawthorn, maple, and ground-ivy, contain a very great quantity 
of gallic acid, while those of the oak contain very little; that 
the buds of the elm, the oak, and the hawthorn contain a great 
portion of tannin, while those of the cornel have but little, and 
those of the maple none at all—that those of the cornel and the 
maple contain only a small quantity of resin and that the fluid in 
which all young buds are macerated reddens turnsol in a very 
decided manner. 
These analyses demonstrate, that the principles to which we 
have been usually accustomed to attribute haematuria are in too 
small quantity to produce the effects we have observed ; and 
that we must rather search for the cause of it in the usage of 
green food in the spring, and of ordinary aliment, too aqueous, 
and in which their proper active principles are not yet sufficiently 
developed. The animals eating a great quantity of these at that 
season, the organs of digestion are slightly excited ; an excite¬ 
ment which is soon calmed down by the continued usage of these 
over-aqueous aliments, and which gradually produce a general 
debility or loss of power. The consequences of this are, dis¬ 
colouration of the blood, and unnatural state of fluidity in it, 
and its consequent evacuation by the mucous surface most ready 
to be acted upon by it, and which is the mucous surface of the 
kidneys. 
In 1834, vegetation proceeded very rapidly. I had a great 
many patients labouring under this disease, and almost all the 
early ones died. In 1836 and 1837, on the contrary, the vegeta¬ 
tion was slow and interrupted, and hsematuria did not appear, 
at least in the canton of Montbard. 
Treatment .—We have, hitherto, somewhat too exclusively em¬ 
ployed the antiphlogistic method in the various stages of this dis¬ 
ease. In following, with attention to the successive development 
of all the symptoms which characterize it, it must be acknow¬ 
ledged that, if the sanguineous turgescence is principally perceiv¬ 
ed in the region of the kidneys, their state of engorgement will 
not be slow in being replaced by an opposite one, accompanied by 
all the principal indications of anemia or bloodlessness. It is on 
this account that we need not wonder to see charlatans counting 
on a certain number of cures by means of the stimulants and the 
tonics, which are indiscriminately employed by them in every 
