body is found to be low, and weakness present, and suppurative process tardy and slow, as an effect of prostration, &c.

All loose portions of hoof should be removed, together with those which favour the retention of matter; in some instances an opening should be made at the solar portion of the foot when matter burrows deeply; abscesses opened as early and as freely as possible, and poultices to the feet, assisted by mild caustics, to promote the healing powers. Strong caustics I have found to be highly prejudicial, especially in milch cows, by their unerring tendency to the increase of irritation or symptomatic fever. The various acids are highly useful, and may be used as hereafter directed, free or mixed with the poultice.

In those extreme cases, where abscesses form over various parts of the body, due attention must be paid to the state of the bowels, ab initio, succeeded by the early use of tonics and stimulants-iron with gentian being found highly useful, not only as a topical dressing to the mouth, but as an invigorating agent to the whole system. Liberal diet should be allowed as the patient will take it, but when the extreme soreness of the mouth precludes the possibility of doing so, demulcent drinks, and thick oatmeal and linseed gruel with treacle should be given with the horn, if the beast cannot take it, in which the iron and gentian1o may be mixed. Hay tea forms a very agreeable drink, of which most animals will partake, and should be allowed ad libitum, when diarrhoea is not present or feared to come on. Ale, port wine, and various spirits are sometimes used, but their more useful counterparts may be obtained in the shape of ammonia, &c., with gruel and treacle, &c. Open the abscesses freely and as early as possible, after which keep them clean and treat as ordinary wounds. The zinc myrrh compositum, Tr. Arnica Montana, or white lotion of the Edinburgh Veterinary College, as prescribed by Professor, Dick forın very good compounds, the latter being the most efficacious. Should the healing process be tardy, and ulceration and sloughing probable, as indicated by a dry unhealthy appearance of the wounds, use the black oils, or spirits of camphor, turpentine liniment, &c.

In affections of the mammary gland, the teat syphon should be used to draw off the milk, and obviate the increase of soreness to the teats by milking. Weak solutions of carbonate of soda" injected up the teat of the affected quarter have proved highly successful in my hands, allaying the irritation arising from the retention and coagulation of milk, and neutralizing free acids which are formed within as a result of the resident inflammation. I have also found large doses internally of very great service in these affections, in conjunction with moderate depletive measures, which under these complications the animal will generally bear with much greater safety.

The hyposulphite of soda12, and iodide of potassium13 have been attended with marked benefit; and chlorine water, solutions of sulphate or chloride of zinc1 to the broken vesicles upon the bag of great service also.

Abscesses forming in this part must also receive the earliest attention as previously recommended, noticing this differencethat suppuration, or the formation of matter, does not exhibit the usual characteristic signs of tumefaction and swelling in this organ as when taking place among muscles, &c.; but, on the contrary, is denoted by a depression, and sense of pitting under the finger; and mortification is likely to affect the whole or portion, therefore stronger remedies called digestive15 are needed to promote a free discharge of matter to liberate the internal affected parts. Poultices cannot always be made use of to this organ-particularly under the affection we are considering; but, if possible, their effects for good will be found appa

rent.

In the first instance of disease seizing the udder the ointments of elder, camphor, mercury, or iodine, will be most beneficial; but not after inflammation has finally become developed.

As a rule bleeding has not generally been imperatively called for in my practice, the early approach of weakness forbidding it, depletive effects having been sufficiently accomplished by saline medicine.

16

When affections of the alimentary track appear, as indicated by sore cough, profuse salivation, diarrhoea, colic, &c., the hyposulphite of soda, sulphate of magnesia or soda, with nitre, will be required, and demulcent drinks in small quantities. In urgent stages prussic acid," aconite, hyoscyamus or belladonna, laudanum, with oil are highly useful in their various combinations. This form of disease with the latter complications considered, is the most fatal, producing death by the effects upon the lungs and nervous system. Our most energetic efforts, therefore, to stay the disease in its progress should be directed to the animal in the early stages, as prostration succeeds with such rapid strides, as to render all our efforts to rouse the dormant powers unavailing.

Affection of the lungs in cattle as an independent disease, under the denomination of pleuro-pneumonia, is always of a nature to be dreaded, but when dependent upon a combination of causes, and particularly in connection with such states of the system as I have described, the treatment will obviously be of a very hopeless character.

The vascular system in ruminants eminently favours the process of effusion within the inter-lobular spaces of the lungs, and cavity of the chest, which favours the general prostration already brought about; and counter treatment under such cir

cumstances is often productive of greater harm. If the animal survives to some extent, consolidation, or hepatization of the lungs is safe to occur, with adhesions more or less to the sides.

The post-mortem appearances presented in animals which have died from the effects of murrain are rendered variable from the complications with which it now and then occurs. The most simple being that in which the animal dies from implication of the digestive organs, utter prostration from want of support, and the effects of profuse salivation being the immediate cause. The muscles of the body are pale, soft, and flaccid, and wasted, the secretions being diminished.

Bowels empty, with here and there patches of ecchymosisinternally the membrane is ulcerated extending from the mouth and fauces, to the small intestines, and even the rectum, the fourth stomach participating the most.

In milder cases, the third stomach I have found constipated, the mouth and gullet only being affected.

Extreme cases are marked in addition to the above by disorganisation of the lungs, liver, spleen, or altogether; congestion of the brain and medulla oblongata; the blood resembles treacle, and will not coagulate; patches of ecchymosis and inflammation here and there are found over the bowels.

The condition of pyæmia being in some cases established prior to death taking place, the tendency to early gangrene present, and rapid putrefaction ensuing, particularly in sheep and pigs.

MEASURES ADVOCATED IN THE FOREGOING PAGES, WITH DIRECTIONS FOR THEIR USE.

1. Fumigation. For this purpose sulphur may be burned on a chafing dish of hot coals, red hot irons, &c., or chlorine gas evolved by pouring muriatic acid over the black oxide. of manganese, and applying heat to the glass vessel in which. the mixture is placed. Another process consists in using slightly diluted oil of vitriol; black oxide of manganese and common salt when the gas is rapidly evolved.

2. Alum Waler, consists of two drams of powdered alum to 6 or 8 ounces of water.

3. Acidulated Solutions.-Sulphuric, nitric, or hydrochloric acids, in the proportion of half a dram to the ounce of water for the feet. For the mouth, 1 dram to 8 ounces.

4. Chlorine Water is made by directing a current of the gas from the retort or flask in which it is generated through a volume of water.

5. Hay Tea consists of a large handful of clover or other

sweet-smelling hay being covered by boiling water in a pail, which, after the lapse of ten or fifteen minutes, is filled up with cold water to the required temperature.

6. Vegetable Tonics and Aromatics.-Most useful are gentian and ginger pulverised, in dozes of 1 to 2 ounces.

7. Diffusible Stimulants.—Aromatic spirits of ammoniadose, 1 to 2 ounces largely diluted; carbonate of ammonia, 4 drams do.; liq. ammonia, 1 ounce do.

8. Poultices are composed of linseed meal and brewers' yeast. 9. Mild Caustics.-See No. 13 and No. 14.

10. Iron and Gentian.-Sulphate of iron, 2 drams; powdered gentian, 1 to 2 ounces.

11. Solution of Carbonate of Soda.-2 drams to 8 ounces of distilled water, as injections for the teats; as an internal remedy, 2 ounces in gruel or water two or three times a day.

12. Hyposulphite, Sulphite, and Bi-sulphite of Sodium-Internally, 2 to 4 ounces two or three times a day in water, gruel, &c.

13. Iodide of Potassium.-1 to 2 drams, as No. 12.

14. Sulphate of Zinc Solution.-10 grains to 1 ounce of water. Chloride of 5 do.

do.

do.

15. Digestives. As black oils; rape oil, 8 ounces; sulphuric acid, 1 ounce-mix cautiously; ointment of verdigris or acetate of copper; ointment of resin, &c.

16. Hyposulphite of Sodium.-2 to 4 ounces two or three times. a day; sulphate of magnesia or soda, 2 to 4 ounces three times. a day.

Nitre.-Nitrate of potassium, 4 drams three times a day. 17. Aconite, Tincture of, 20 or 30 drops for

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CHEMICAL DEPARTMENT. BY THOMAS ANDERSON, M.D., F.R.S.E, Chemist to the Society.

I.-FIELD EXPERIMENTS ON THE ACTION OF URIC ACID AND GELATINE AS MANURES.

In the 11th volume of the Transactions of the Society, I published the results of a series of experiments on the action of uric acid as a manure, undertaken for the purpose of solving a doubt which had been expressed as to whether that substance is capable of affording a supply of nitrogen to the crop to which it is applied. The practical importance of determining this point lies in the fact that more than half the nitrogen in Peruvian guano is present in the form of uric acid; and if that substance cannot yield up its nitrogen to the plant, it is manifest that however good may have been the effect of that manure, the farmer who goes on the assumption that all its nitrogen is equally available as food for his crops, must have attached to it a greater value in proportion to other manures than it really merits.

It may be considered as a matter established beyond all doubt that complex nitrogenous compounds, such as those which form part of the tissues of plants and animals, are incapable of direct absorption into the vegetable system, but must first undergo decomposition, and yield up their nitrogen in the form either of ammonia or nitric acid before it can be assimilated; and it is very clear that however rich a substance may be in that element, it must be valueless in an agricultural point of view, unless it is capable of undergoing this change. It had been always assumed that uric acid was readily decomposed in the soil until Liebig recently called this opinion in question, and excluded its nitrogen from among the valuable constituents of Peruvian guano. I had myself always held an opposite opinion, and maintained that the nitrogen, not only of uric acid, but of all other nitrogenous compounds existing in manures, might be calculated as ammonia without entailing any practical error, and this certainly seems to be the fair and legitimate inference to be drawn from the observed results of the action of manures. But as a different opinion had been expressed, it appeared most desirable that both views should be submitted to the test of actual experiment, and I was thus induced to undertake the investigation which has been referred to at the outset. The results of these experiments, for the details of which I must refer to the paper itself, proved incontesibly that uric acid did