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REPORTS OF CASES. 
REPORTS OF CASES, 
“Careful observation makes a skillful practitioner , but his skill dies with him . 
By recording his observations he adds to the knowledge of his profession, and assists 
by his facts in building up the solid edifice of pathological science .”— Veterinary 
Record. 
A PECULIAR CASE OF POISONING—ONE OF THE THINGS 
DYNAMITE WILL DO. 
By George N. Kinnell, M.R.C.Y.S., Pittsfield, Massachusetts. 
On the 26th of May, 1892, I was called to investigate the 
cause of death of a cow, this animal being the second that 
had died within a week, both having been members of the 
same herd and both having shown the same symptoms prior 
to death. The history in each case was that the animals be¬ 
came very dull and languid, suffered from profuse urination 
and thirst, gradually became comatose, and died in from 
twenty-four to thirty-six hours. The herd had been kept in 
a large pasture at one side of which there was an unfenced 
limestone quarry. The owner told me the cows were in the 
habit of spending a good deal of their time around this quarry. 
They liked to lick the fresh surface of the blasted stone, and 
also to pick up any sprinklings of blasting powder that might 
be spilt around. 
1 at once suspected the cows had got at a keg and helped 
themselves to their hearts’ content, as the nitrate of potash, 
which copstitutes seventy-five percent, of the weight of blast¬ 
ing powder, would account for all the symptoms presented. 
On opening the cow I found the fourth stomach and first part 
of the small intestines very much inflamed, the inflammation 
being most acute in the stomach and becoming less so as it 
progressed into the intestines. 
Throughout the stomach and intestines there was a quan¬ 
tity of black, slimy substance, such as can be got by mixing 
together mucus and powder, but there was not enough of it 
present to satisfy my mind that the cause of death was poison¬ 
ing with blasting powder. 
The kidneys were enlarged, flabby, friable, and almost in 
