526 
SPLENIC APOPLEXY. 
The cases, however, which have occurred during the sum¬ 
mer months must have depended on causes of a totally 
different kind, and a further investigation may show that they 
were probably due to the general character of the herbage 
of the pastures on which the animals were placed. It has 
been already shown that the animals, when at pasture, can 
obtain a supply of good water, either from the river Yeo or 
from adjacent brooks, but, nevertheless, the entire water 
question requires a strict examination. Like many parts of 
Somersetshire, the district abounds in land locally called “tart 
land/’ the herbage of which produces diarrhoea often to an 
alarming extent among the cattle. The real cause of “ tart¬ 
ness ** would appear not to be well understood, and scientific 
researches are therefore required for the proper solution of the 
problem. The character of the water in some places, apart 
from the herbage, is known to produce diarrhoea; and it not 
unfrequently happens that this condition of the water and 
“tart land” are combined. It does not, however, appear 
that “tart land” exercises any influence in the production 
of splenic apoplexy, or, at any rate, it seems not to have done 
so in the present instances. Were it otherwise, the disease 
would have been far more frequent in its occurrence than it 
has been, and would also of necessity have persisted where the 
“ tart land ” exists. 
It is a remarkable circumstance that in the parish of Sock, 
and also in the adjoining one of Tintinhull, the water, which 
is obtained by the sinking of wells on land which rises a few 
feet above the level of the valley of the Yeo, is so impregnated 
with sulphuretted hydrogen that it can only be used for 
ordinary cleansing purposes. On these farms the occupiers 
are obliged to collect rain-water from the roofs of the 
buildings for drinking and culinary uses. The fetor of the 
well-water is at times almost unbearable on being drawn by 
the pumps belonging to farm-residences. 
On the farm in the occupation of Mr. Bradley the surplus 
of the house water from the pump mixes with the fetid sewage, 
and also partly with the drainage of the cattle-yards, and 
then finds its way to the bottom of the meadow No. 30, in 
which many animals have died; but it does not go near 
to the other meadows where also the disease has mani¬ 
fested itself. Besides this, No. 30 meadow, which has a 
considerable fall from its upper to its lower part, is so situated 
as to induce the belief that water, charged with organic 
matters which yield sulphuretted hydrogen, may percolate 
the sides of the slope and impart some deleterious principles 
to the herbage. This is a point which requires further inves- 
