INJURIOUS EFFECTS OF ALTH/EA ROSEA. 
197 
of its limbs ; falling clown, and for a time unable to rise. 
As the disease advances, the pulse becomes so quick and 
oppressed as not to be counted. Along with grinding of the 
teeth, and foaming at the mouth, the eyes become hollow, a 
dirty-looking mucus appears about the nostrils, and the poor 
brute gradually becoming exhausted, sinks at last, from 
excessive nausea produced by the complete arrest of the 
process of digestion. 
Upon dissection, the rumen is generally found to contain 
its usual quantity of ingesta, and to be in a perfectly normal 
state. The reticulum is also found to be healthy. The 
omasum, in some cases, is found to contain a quantity of 
moist food, whilst in others it is found impacted with a dry, 
hard, and solid mass, as in “fardle bound/ 5 invariably however 
accompanied with congestion or inflammation of its mucous 
coat. The abomasum and intestines are also found to be in 
a highly congested or even inflamed state. The other viscera 
are perfectly healthy. The blood is quite fluid and very dark 
in colour. 
The nature of the disease, in my opinion, is very obvious, 
and the progress of the symptoms can be readily explained, 
when the causes producing them, and the circumstances 
under which they occur, are considered. The disease, I have 
said, makes its appearance at the season when the grass on 
which the cattle feed, becoming fibrous and seedy, is not very 
easily digested, in consequence of which the functions of the 
stomachs become partially deranged. The half-digested food 
passes into the intestines, and there becomes a fresh source 
of irritation ; the bowels also becoming sluggish, constipation 
follows, which aggravates the disease. The appetite is 
morbidly affected, being either ravenous or capricious and 
uncertain. From the great sympathy which exists between 
the stomachs and the brain, the latter organ becomes involved, 
and produces the peculiar insensibility and staggering re¬ 
ferred to, when the animal is moved. Should an animal with 
its digestive functions impaired, and its appetite capricious, 
find any green food, it matters not what, either althaea rosea, 
or anything else, it eats voraciously, gorges its already 
weakened stomach, and in consequence we have what would 
have been a functional, and comparatively speaking an easily 
managed affection, hurried on to an acute, structural, and 
very formidable disease. The disease, in my opinion, is 
neither more nor less than acute dyspepsia, accompanied by 
brain symptoms. 
The treatment of the affection consists in giving a good dose 
of purgative medicine, combined with an active stimulant, the 
