ON POISONOUS REPTILES. 
558 
a disease of the membrane beneath the skin. The language of 
Shakspeare is in every one’s recollection: — 
“ My fell of hair 
Would at a dismal treatise rouse, and stir 
As life were in’t.” 
The dealer in hides is yet called a fell-monger. 
To his question, 66 Is there a similar case on record?” We re¬ 
ply, No; not exactly so: but there are cases of inguinal hernia 
in cattle. Some of them were spontaneous; tumours were found 
in the groin almost as large as a child’s head. Others have been 
produced by the goring of a beast: but the case most in point is 
this,—that about the seventh or eight month of parturition, the 
cow is occasionally subject to an excessive accumulation of fluid 
in the uterus or calf-bed, to such an extent that, as it is expressed, 
u the rim of the cow’s belly is ruptured,” or the tendinous expan¬ 
sions of the obliqui abdominis forced from their attachment to the 
pubis. We should rather say, that the unattached portion is suf¬ 
ficiently extended to suffer even a portion of the uterus to escape, 
and become strangulated. The stimulating medicine given on the 
17th was certainly unprofessional: but nothing could have saved 
the animal, except a puncture with a trochar through the abdominal 
parietes into the uterus to evacuate the superabundant fluid, and 
possibly, afterwards, the regular operation for inguinal hernia. 
Edit. 
ON POISONOUS REPTILES. 
By the same . 
Naturalists inform us, that the viper is the only poisonous 
reptile in England. If such is the case, What are the effects pro¬ 
duced by its bite ? What are the best means of subduing its 
virulence ? I am induced to make the above inquiries from the 
following case, that has lately been under my care. 
A valuable draught mare, with a foal on her, was perceived on 
the morning of the 1st of August to be scarcely able to walk ; 
which, on examination, was found to arise from the near side of 
her udder being very much swollen. As congestion of the milk 
was then thought to be the cause, she was removed to the stable, 
