286 
EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
as if he were in the midst of a magazine of drugs in some 
civilised country.-’^ 
A practical case^ showing the value of botany to the 
members of our profession; has just come to our knowledge. 
A gentleman; having lost some lambs from an attack of 
disease which he did not understand; sent a dead lamb to his 
veterinary surgeon; requesting him to make a post-mortem 
examination. This was done, and he reported that the 
animal had died of gastro-enteritis, produced by the impact- 
nient of the pylorus and part of the duodenum with wool 
and coarse fibres of undigested food.” On inquiry as to 
the nature of the undigested food, we found that the fourth 
stomach contained a quantity of a black-looking seeds. 
What, then, were these seeds ? We have reason to suspect 
that they were the seeds of the T>atura tatula —purple- 
flowered Stramonium ; so that, after all, we may have to 
refer to the botanist to make out the case in its entirety. 
We daily hear of cattle dying in some pastures, while others 
are renowned for their health-giving properties. 
But we would not underrate the theoretical views which 
after all become of practical importance in showing the 
analogy of structure, and the dependencies of animals upon 
plants, and; as so well remarked by Henfrey, the progress 
of science is the result of the advancing march of observa¬ 
tion and generalisation, by which we endeavour to acquire a 
knowledge of tlie conditions of things, and to harmonise 
their relations with the laws of our understanding.” 
In this practical age every suggestion is met by the 
inquiry. Cm hono ? Every-day experience in the life of the 
country practitioner will furnish a definite answer; and, in 
fact, he who knows most of the earth with the herb yielding 
seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, will be 
least inclined to ask, What good ? In a thousand ways he 
realises that knowledge is power—special power—to him 
whose life is devoted to the care of those animals who derive 
all their food and no small portion of their medicine from 
the vegetable world. * 
