512 
Extracts from British and Foreign Journals. 
ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. 
SPLENIC APOPLEXY IN CATTLE AND SHEEP. 
A weekly meeting of the council and members of the 
Society —the last of the present season for discussion on 
special subjects connected with agriculture—took place on 
Wednesday, July Qth, in Hanover Square. The chair was 
taken at noon bv the Earl of Powis. 
%/ 
After some routine business, 
Professor Simonds rose, in pursuance of notice, to intro¬ 
duce the above subject. He said the remarks he was about 
to make with regard to the nature and probable causes of 
splenic apoplexy—a disease, the name of which he would 
explain presently—were to be considered as simply prepara¬ 
tory to the reading of some reports in relation to an out¬ 
break of this disease in Somersetshire. The attention of the 
council was first called to the matter about six months 
since by Sir William Miles ; and, as the veterinary officer of 
the society, he received instructions to investigate the facts 
of the outbreak. On his return from the neighbourhood he 
prepared his report, having ascertained that the occupiers 
of the farms were no better acquainted with the causes of the 
malady than at its commencement. As he had reason to 
believe that certain pastures on two farms in particular gave 
origin to the disease, and also that the water in the district 
was of a peculiar character, had recommended that a further 
investigation should be made by Dr. Voelcker, as chemist to 
the society, and by Professor Buckman, botanist, of the 
Royal Agricultural College of Cirencester, both of whom 
had prepared reports, which would also be read to the 
meeting. The chief business that day, therefore, would be 
the reading of these reports, which, with the discussion, 
which might possibly throw some light on the nature of the 
outbreak. 
He would next observe that the disease designated splenic 
apoplexy was so called because, on making a post-mortem ex¬ 
amination of an animal it was found that the spleen was enor¬ 
mously engorged with blood ; besides which there was some 
reason to believe that this sudden engorgement of the organ 
was the chief cause of the fatality of the affection. Fie thought, 
however, that, on looking a little deeper into the matter, we 
