692 ENLARGED TIIYMUS GLANDS IN A QUEY. 
more superficial, was then removed in the same manner, 
after having been very useful in keeping the said sub- 
scapulo-hyoid muscle out of the way. Both tumours seemed 
to be indifferently supplied with blood. Excepting the 
cutaneous veins, which yielded less than an ounce of blood, 
there were no blood-vessels divided, hence no artery nor vein 
required to be taken up. A few interrupted stitches were 
put in, and as the quey had necessarily to stand during the 
operation, there being only one man and a boy present at 
its commencement, orders were given to let go the under 
jaw, when the animal immediately sprang over a four-foot 
wall. I have not seen her since, but have learned that she 
is doing well. 
She is the property of Mr. George Reay, cattle-dealer, here, 
being one of the stock-cattle on his farm of Cairn, parish of 
Tarmadice. I need make no remark on the origin, progress, 
structure, locality, and treatment of such tumours, such 
being already well known to veterinary practitioners. 
Farmers, however, would do well (now that the disease is 
very common) to feed off cattle so affected or predisposed 
when it is possible to do so, and not to breed from such 
stock, as it is generally difficult and sometimes impossible to 
remove the tumours when once formed. It would also be 
for their interest to pay less attention to the direct treatment, 
by intrusting that into the hands of a practitioner, and to 
attend more to the negative treatment, such as avoiding 
blood-letting, avoiding refrigerants, such as nitrate of potash 
and all other medicines that tend to diminish the fibrine of 
the blood, particularly all mercurial preparations, and in 
general to avoid every thing formerly used in the treatment 
of scrofula in the human subject. But this they will not 
always attend to when anything is wrong with any of their 
cattle, they must not merely get direct treatment, but with¬ 
out due discrimination they must share and share alike . 
I am, sir, &c. 
*** [The tumour, which is of the shape of a large kidney, 
is enveloped within a tough membranous capsule and consists 
of yellow tuberculous masses of substance, varying in magni¬ 
tude from the size of an acorn to that of a large hen’s egg ; 
one body of tubercle in the heart of the tumour being larger 
than that. All of these bodies were more or less in a con¬ 
dition of suppuration, or rather of tubercular softening or 
degeneracy, the matter they contain and are degenerating 
into being, in part, a faint, yellow, curdly substance of the 
