SUSPECTED POISONING OP CATTLE WITH HEMLOCK. 79 
of that day. On cutting into the rumen, I noticed a peculiar 
green appearance of the mucous membrane, and on a further 
examination, I found that I could strip it off the subjacent 
muscular coat with the utmost possible ease. I thought the 
animal had eaten some vegetable poison, such as hemlock, of 
which there was some growing in the field on which it had 
been depastured. 
Since June, three yearlings and five sheep have died on 
the same farm, and in every case the mucous membrane of 
the stomachs has presented the same appearance. 
About twentyyears since,theoccupierof the estate lost forty- 
three sheep in the course of eighteen months. The cause of 
death was not then suspected. I saw the last case alive. No¬ 
thing was observed to be amiss with him the day before. When 
I saw him, he was down, and could not be induced to rise. 
The pulse was quick, the breathing accelerated, and the 
rumen distended with gas. 1 endeavoured to abstract blood— 
not with any idea of relieving him—but could not get more 
than a pint. Twm hours after he died. 
On making & postmortem examination of the stomachs of 
a wether that died a few r days since on another estate, I 
found the lining membrane to be similarly diseased. This 
sheep had evinced no premonitory symptoms. The heart 
was perfectly emptied of blood, and although I cut into the 
large veins of the system, I could not perceive any that w 7 as 
coagulated. A dirty sanguinous fluid occupied the serous 
cavities. 
Many of the yearlings on the first farm alluded to were 
lame of one leg, and most of them—in fact nearly all— 
brought only the heels of the feet of the affected limbs to the 
ground, the toes being pointed upw r ards. Was this due to 
paralysis of the flexor muscles ? 
The blood of the yearling had coagulated, and black blood 
filled the right and left auricles and ventricles. I attributed 
the death of these animals to their having eaten some acrid 
vegetable poison, such as hemlock. They have no oppor¬ 
tunity of eating yew r leaves, neither are there many of the 
Ranunculaceae in the fields; but there are several hemlock 
I am aware that the peeling off of the epithelium from 
the coats of the first three stomachs is frequently attributable 
to the disengagement of gas; but that the presence of gas 
in the rumen, &c., w r as the cause in the instances I have 
referred to, I find rather difficult of belief. I have seen 
many cases in which there has been a great deal of tympany ; 
but in these the symptoms were altogether different from 
