eee ————— ————————————Eeee - 
ST ce ne a ET 
630 W ATER-IN-THE-HEAD. 
ours are of different shades, from pale yellow to 
dark green; the toes are very long, the middle 
one measuring to the end of the nail nearly 3 
inches; the under sides of the toes are broad, 
being furnished over their whole length on each 
side with membranous edgings, which enable the 
bird to swim, and readily to run over the surface 
of slimy mud; the legs are placed far behind. 
The body is long, and compressed at the sides, 
contrary to those of the duck kind, which are 
broad, flat, and depressed; and the feathers are 
thickly set, and bedded upon down. 
WATER HOREHOUND. See Horrnounp 
(Water). 
WATERING POOLS. See Ponp and Watrr. 
WATER-IN-THE-CHEST. See HyprotHorax. 
WATER-IN-THE-HEAD,—/Hydrocephalus. A 
dropsy of the head of animals, or diseased collec- 
tion of serous liquid within the head’s circum- 
scribed cavities. It sometimes occurs in indi- 
viduals of each of the three chief species of farm 
live stock,—horse, ox, and sheep. 
Hydrocephalus in the horse is occasionally 
congenital, occasionally though rarely idiopathic, 
and oftener though still rarely the result of irri- 
tation of the brain or its membranes from some 
other disease. It sometimes or perhaps generally 
commences in a similar way to phrenitis or mad 
staggers, but more slowly and with much less 
violence of symptom; but its commencement 
can seldom be detected, and even in its progress, 
or the degree in which it has become established, 
cannot easily be determined. Some bold cure 
for it perhaps may at some future time be in- 
vented by mechanical abstraction of the liquid; 
but as yet no better practice is known than to 
attempt absorption by means of vesicants, mercu- 
rial unguents, nauseants, purgatives, diuretics 
and repeated small bleedings. 
Hydrocephalus in foetal oxen is sometimes so 
great as to render parturition difficult or impos- 
sible; and in every such case the foetus may be 
unhesitatingly and promptly destroyed in order 
to save the cow. The disease also developes it- 
self in some weak and sickly calves; and as soon 
as it is ascertained to exist, they may be destroyed, 
as they will never come to any good. A dropsy, 
not in the ventricles of the brain, but between 
the membranes, and therefore not indicating it- 
self by any change in the size or form of the cra- 
nium, sometimes occurs in adult cattle ; but it 
can seldom if ever be distinguished from apo- 
plexy or flow of blood to the head, except in 
being milder and slower,—and it may be treated 
in a similar way, by bleeding and purging. 
Hydrocephalus, both of the ventricles and of 
the enveloping membranes, is not uncommon in 
both foetal and young lambs ; and, in the former 
case, is a warrant for promptly destroying them, 
—and even in the latter, does not admit of cure, 
unless in rare cases by the natural supply of 
abundant milk from the mother or from a fos- 
ter-mother, with the administration of aperient 
WATER-LILY. 
and tonic medicine. Its symptoms in young 
lambs are dulness, want of appetite, distension 
of the skull, languor and projection of the eye ; 
and stupid appearance and staggering gait; and 
it 1s sometimes mistaken for turnsick or goggles, 
but may readily be distinguished from that 
disease by the total absence of gyrating and 
circular motion in the gait. See the article Hy- 
pDATID. It seems to be hereditary; and is most 
commonly caused by general debility in the ewe. 
If many instances of it occur on a farm, the 
ram formerly employed should not be employed 
again; and in every one instance, the ewe should 
be dismissed from among the breeders. 
WATER LEAF. See Hypropuyiivm. 
WATER LILY,—botanically Vymphea. A ge- 
nus of ornamental, floating, aquatic plants, consti- 
tuting thetype of thenatural order Nympheacee. 
The botanical structure of this order has been a 
subject of great dispute among the most eminent 
botanists,—some contending that it is exoge- 
nous, and others that it is endogenous. Its true 
place seems most probably to be among the many- 
carpelled thalamiflorous exogens, not far from | 
the barberry and the moonseed families, or even 
from the magnolia family. All are floating plants 
of great interest and beauty; and many have 
flowers of most elegant forms and very pleasing 
or brilliant hues. 
the rest perform a similar office—some with vast- 
ly more splendour—in othercountries. About 20 
hothouse species, and upwards of a dozen hardy 
ones occur in British gardens; and are distribut- 
ed among the genera nymphezea, nuphar, euryale, 
and nelumbium. See the articles Lotus, N E- 
LUMBIUM, and NupHar. 
No Powe than eighteen of the species of Nym- 
Three adorn the waters of our | 
own wilds with liliaceous magnificence; and all | 
pheeacezw in Britain belong to the genus nym-— 
phea; and seventeen of these are exotic. Seven, | 
including the indigenous one, have cordate leaves 
and white flowers, and, with one exception, are | 
hardy; seven have peltate and for the most part | 
toothed leaves and either white or red flowers, | 
and are all tender; and four have peltate and for | 
the most part entire leaves and blue or bluish 
flowers, and are all tender. The hardy species 
may be grown in ponds, canals, and similar collec- 
tions of water; the stove species require to be 
grown in tubs of water, placed in a warm part of 
the house, with some rich loamy soil at the bot- 
tom; and all are propagated either from seeds or 
by dividing the roots, or by separating the tu- 
bers. 
The indigenous species, or common water lily, 
Nymphea alba, inhabits the clear ponds and slow 
clear rivers of many parts of Britain; and is one 
of the most superb of our native flowering plants. 
Its root is tuberous and horizontal, and sends 
down many long stout radicles, with fibrous ex- 
tremities; its leaves are oval heart-shaped and 
about four inches wide, and have nearly parallel 
or close lobes at the base, and are entire and 
