GRASS-STAGGERS. 
667 
throughout the country, I considered the statements I made 
might not be objectionable to any unprejudiced readers of 
the Veterinarian , and might induce some one to take up the 
subject who, in consequence of having twelve, fourteen, or 
even more years* experience, might be in a position to handle 
the subject more fully. But instead of that, nothing appeared 
but a criticism on youth and inexperience. 
That the cases communicated by me were cases of grass- 
staggers I still remain perfectly satisfied, and I shall now 
state some of my reasons for doing so, and, not like Mr. 
Storrer, make an assertion without giving a single proof of its 
correctness more than leading one to suppose that he is a 
practitioner of twelve or fourteen years* standing, a line of 
argument to which I (being obliged to use the first person 
singular again) am not inclined to attach much importance. 
He states that the cases I described were distinctly those of 
lead-poisoning. Now, before symptoms of lead-poisoning 
could be present, lead, in some of its compounds, must have 
entered the body of the animals, either in the food or water 
•which they consumed. In the first case I described the 
animal was supplied with water from a pond which had no 
communication with any lead pipes whatever. The land 
upon which the animal was feeding contained no lead, unless 
what might have been taken to it through the manure, and 
had any been taken in that way it would have been buried 
in the soil beyond the reach of the animals. 
In the second case the land was of the same description; 
in short, no lead in the native state abounds in the country. 
The cows w'ere watered from a pump in the farmyard; but 
even allowing, for the sake of argument, that the water had 
been supplied to these animals through lead pipes, then -would 
it not have had poisonous effects unless it had been almost 
entirely devoid of organic salts, which I am quite satisfied 
was not the case. But granting all these proofs to be un¬ 
satisfactory, then why should the symptoms detailed by me 
only appear in the summer months ? If caused by lead¬ 
poisoning, then we (now using the first person plural) would 
naturally expect to find them during the whole year, and we 
might also expect the mortality would be confined to one or 
more poisonous localities, whereas the symptoms I detailed 
are almost universally to be found w : here the cattle are fed on 
young rye grass, and appears to be more prevalent in very 
dry weather, and most aggravated under the influence of a 
strong sun. 
Mr. Storrer very distinctly states that the symptoms I de¬ 
tailed were those of lead-poisoning. I beg to differ from him 
in that respect, but that difference of opinion would seem to 
