SPLENIC APOPLEXY. 
527 
tigation, and should be undertaken by those who possess 
a chemical and also a geological knowledge. To show the 
singular geological condition of the locality, I may state that 
Mr. Bradley, some years since, with a view of getting good 
water for his house, sunk a well on the level of the valley, 
and within a hundred and twenty yards of the original one, 
which yielded water so impregnated with saline matters that 
it also could not be used. 
On inquiring into the water supply on Mr. Hussey’s farm, 
which up to the present time has been perfectly free from the 
disease, I ascertained that about six years since a well, which 
yielded fetid water, was covered in, and the water from a brook 
diverted so as to supply a tank, from which it is pumped for 
the use of the cattle. 
This was done in consequence of the animals refusing to 
drink the fetid water, or when doing so becoming attacked 
with diarrhoea. The tank is situated about forty feet from 
the well, and at times its water has a slight unpleasant smell, 
arising, as is supposed, from leakage, either from the well or 
from the surrounding soil. 
My next visit was to Mr. Taylor’s farm at Tintinhull, and 
was made chieflv because I was informed that the cattle here 
* 
constantly drank fetid ivater , and that their health was in no 
way affected. On inspecting the premises, however, I found 
that this was not the case, and that the term 44 bad water” 
was used synonymously with fetid water. The water giver 
to the cattle is drawn from a pump in the shed, and is con¬ 
ducted by pipes into small drinking-troughs made of iron*, 
and placed in front of the stalls. It is apparently largely 
impregnated with the salts of lime, has a somewhat chaly¬ 
beate taste, and is not very clear; but, nevertheless, it is not 
more objectionable for animals than most hard waters. The 
well yielding the fetid water is situated within fifty yards of 
this one, and was originally made with a hope of obtaining 
water less turbid and better suited for domestic purposes. It 
is uncovered, and, on gauging it, I found it was only twenty- 
seven feet deep, fifteen of which were occupied with water, so 
that it would appear that the organic matters which produce 
the sulphuretted hydrogen are superficially placed in the soil. 
It is a singular fact connected with this well, that the water 
was comparatively sweet until a leaden pipe connected with a 
pump near the house was placed in it, with a view to obviate 
the trouble of going each time to the well for water. The first 
water drawn from the pump in the morning is not only so 
exceedingly fetid as scarcely to be borne, but is dark in 
colour; and although this colour soon passes off, the fetor 
