DEATH OF THREE HEIFERS. 
469 
effects are the result of causes: hidden they may be and as they 
undoubtedly are in many cases, under heaps of blind customs. 
These, however, only require to be looked into without 
prejudice for truth to stand forth in all its beauty and sim¬ 
plicity. In drawing these few remarks to a close, my object 
will be answered if I succeed in directing public attention to 
a subject of so much importance, that a more extended 
scientific investigation of it may be elicited, whereby error 
and danger shall be averted. 
DEATH OF THREE HEIFERS CAUSED BY THE 
RANUNCULUS FICARIJE (LESSER CELANDINE. 
PILE WORT). 
By Henry Flower, M.R.C.V.S., Derby. 
The following particulars respecting the death of three 
heifers, from their partaking of a species of Ranunculus 
(Ranunculus Jtcaria ), I have fonvarded to you, with a view 
of their being brought under the notice of the profession 
through’ the pages of the Veterinarian, I feel sure that, on 
closer examination, in many of our pastures various plants 
will be found which at certain seasons of the year are calcu¬ 
lated to produce injurious and not unfrequently fatal effects 
upon animals. Hardly a spring has passed without a case 
or two like the following having come under my notice; and 
although I have always had suspicion that death was in some 
measure attributable to plants growing in the pasture, I have 
hitherto been unable to trace it to its true source. Nor is 
this to be wondered at, considering the opportunities afforded 
us of obtaining a knowledge of that science, by the aid of 
which alone investigations of this nature can be fully carried 
out, viz. the science of botany. To all, more or less, but 
to country practitioners especially, an acquaintance with this 
science will be found of great practical utility^ and prove a 
means of tracing to their true source many of those diseases 
amongst animals which are at present but little understood. 
Every day its value forces itself more fully upon our con¬ 
sideration, and I trust the time is not far distant when its 
claims will so far be felt and acknowledged by its forming 
an integral part of the professional education of the veterinary 
surgeon. 
On the 15th of April I was requested to attend a heifer, the 
