192 
DO ANIMALS EAT THE RAN UNCULACE/E ? ETC. 
posed, and thus proved injurious. This idea, I think, will 
receive support from the following occurrence, also inci¬ 
dentally alluded to, although it will certainly not prove it. 
A pony, five years old, apparently in very good health, and 
which had not been in the meadow at all, was placed in the 
same straw-yard with the mare, and in two days was taken 
ill and died. The post-mortem appearances of this animal, 
although not corresponding with those of the mare, as de¬ 
scribed to us, nevertheless strongly indicated that a powerful 
septic poison had been in operation in producing disease and 
death. 
It appears from the above statement that the horses 
withstood the poisonous effects of the agent, whatever it 
may have been, longer than the cattle. The length of time 
the sheep lived after being put into meadow is and 
not stated. 
With reference to the mare which is said to have been three 
months in the meadow, and improved very much in condi¬ 
tion during that time, I should have thought, had not the 
post-mortem appearances corresponded with those of the pony 
and colt, and also those of the cattle, that her death was due 
to some other cause, rather than that which destroyed the 
other animals. 
The following parts of the pony were brought by Mr. 
Wallis to the College for our inspection : namely, the spleen, 
a portion of the liver, both kidneys, a part of the stomach and 
intestines, and the head and neck. The spleen was a little 
enlarged ; the kidneys, and portions of the liver, were very 
much engorged with blood; the latter organ was somewhat 
softened. The mucous membrane of the large intestines, 
from congestion of its vessels, and effusion into the sub¬ 
mucous areolar tissue, was reddened, and in some places there 
were darkened patches from effused blood. The small intes¬ 
tines we did not see. The mucous membrane of the stomach 
was slightly reddened. We also found extensive effusion of 
blood and serum in the areolar tissue of the submaxillary 
space, also in the structure of the salivary and lymphatic 
glands, the guttural pouch, and the sheath of the carotid 
artery for some distance down the neck. The vessels of the 
brain, the spinal cord, and their membranes were enormously 
distended with blood, as were also the venous sinuses in the 
cranial cavity. The mucous membrane lining the fauces, 
larynx, tracheae, and bronchial tubes was of a dark red 
colour, and in places much thickened, particularly around 
the glottis. Its surface was covered with a dark greenish- 
brown and glairy fluid. The surface of the dorsum of the 
