SPLENIC APOPLEXY. 
541 
In conclusion, he would observe that the causes which pro¬ 
duced scouring appeared to have some common origin with 
those which produced splenic apoplexy. In that view he 
might be mistaken ; but it was certainly a fact that, on lias- 
clays, the produce did not get ripe, and, being consumed in 
an unripe state, it produced all kinds of diseases. It was a 
curious thing that manuring had an effect the very reverse of 
what they would expect on the scouring land of central Somer¬ 
setshire ; it made the evil worse. In a wet season, when one 
would expect to see the disease, it did not appear; while 
in a dry summer, when there was a less rapid growth 
of vegetation, it was most dangerous to put cattle on the 
land. It was in a dry summer that the meadows scoured 
most. 
Colonel Challoner said it was an every-day question 
among farmers whether the water that cattle drank from a 
pond, into which the drainage of the farm-yard ran, was or 
was not detrimental. He would be glad if their chemical 
and veterinary professors could give them some definite in¬ 
formation on that point. 
Professor Voelcker said many samples of water which 
looked like the very essence of the manure heap had on 
analysis been found to contain but little deleterious matter. 
Indeed, such water frequently contained much less of such 
matters than clear water. It was a remarkable fact that some 
of the clearest, best-tasting, and apparently most wholesome 
waters were among the most deleterious that could be taken, 
being largely impregnated wdth mineral substances. There 
was in them a tendency to the oxidization of organic matter, 
and hence they acted most injuriously. In the yard-waters 
the amount of organic matter was often very small, a very 
small quantity of drainage being sufficient to give a brovrn 
colour to a large quantity of water. Water w r hich appeared 
to be impregnated with a large quantity of organic matter 
was often not so in reality. When, how r ever, a large quantity 
of refuse material found its way into pond-water it must be 
injurious. 
Professor Simonds agreed with Professor Voelcker that the 
dark colour of water did not of itself prove that it was de¬ 
leterious. There was a great deal of colouring matter in the 
farm-yard that found its way into the contiguous pond, and it 
was an established fact that cattle drank such water with 
impunity. Some cattle even preferred it—he would not say 
to their benefit—to harder, clearer, and brighter w r ater. 
Whether or not such water acted injuriously or not to health 
depended, however, on the amount of organic matters in it. 
It might contain so small an amount as not to be prejudicial 
