ment, or lymph, is not lodged in some part or cavity of the sinuses, and keeping up the discharge; and having ascertained that these circumstances do not operate in keeping up the disease, then try what can be effected, not by coring out and destroying the parts, but by exciting a fresh action in them. Let a solution of any of the solid caustics above enumerated, or some of the liquid ones in a diluted state, be injected into the very bottom of the sinuses, and this repeated every day until what is called adhesive inflammation is set up, and the wound will soon close. Setons are also used with the same view, and, when kept in the part for a few days, often do good. Escharotics, as sulphate of zinc or alum, may be introduced in the solid form into the ulcers with the same view; and the first will be found in many cases, where the inflammation is not very active, to heal up the wounds in a very few days, if it has been properly introduced into the bottom of the wound. The same happy result will often follow a continuation of careful and complete injections of a solution of some of the caustics. Saturated solutions in water of the sulphate of zinc or copper, or the oxymuriate of mercury, has commonly the best effect; but in old and obstinate cases, their effect may be materially increased for the better, by the application of a blister over the swelled part, repeating it as occasion requires; but instead of requiring in general the aid of blisters to excite the inflammation, there is more commonly too much set up by the injections, and a poultice is therefore rather required to mitigate the inflammation and assuage the pain. Indeed, mild as the injection of caustic in a diluted state is, when compared with the introduction of it in the solid form, as farriers are commonly in the habit of using it, this treatment is often more powerful than is required. wounds may frequently be healed by simply removing that portion of the hoof which presses upon it, making a dependant orifice, and soothing the whole by a continuation of poultices; and even where it may be found that caustic must be employed in the solid form, or where recourse must be had to excision with the knife, the application of poultices continued will materially assist in allaying the irritation arising from the application of such remedies, and contribute much in preventing their bad effects.

The

The removal of the diseased parts with the knife cannot be much recommended; the knife should only be used in old cases, and then too only where all the diseased parts can be completely removed without much destruction to the foot. In some instances I have seen a good cure effected by this method, but it is only in favourable cases that it should be tried. I am a strong advocate for mild measures in veterinary practice; our object must be a restoration of parts, their removal is not for us. I am, &c.

ON THE CURE OF HYDATIDS, OR STURDY, IN SHEEP, BY TREIn a Letter to the Editor.

PANNING.

SIB,

THE following instance of an effectual cure of the disease in sheep, commonly called Sturdy, by means of trepanning, though not a new mode of cure, may be interesting to some of your readers.

I had a gimmer of the Leicester breed, which had been brought up as a pet about the house, on cow's milk *, its mother having died after giving birth to twins, one of which was brought up by another ewe. The shepherd dreaded, at the tupping season, that the gimmer would become affected with sturdy. The symptoms of the disease, however, did not become aggravated till February, when the poor creature wandered from the rest of the flock, stood up against the fence, or fell into the ditches, though it never lay on its back. It then ceased to be able to gather its food, and would certainly have been killed long before it was reduced to such a pitiable state, had it not been from the desire of saving the lives of the twins, with which it was evident it was pregnant. After all, the twins were

A goose-quill, covered with linen cloth sewed on with thread till it acquires the thickness of a ewe's teat, I have found a very useful instrument with which to give pet lambs their milk, which should be warm from the cow. This artificial teat should be washed clean every time it is used, which should be, at the least, three times a day, to prevent its contracting acidity.

produced about a fortnight before their due time, and were both dead. As the mother would have died in a short time also, a victim to the disease, the experiment of trepanning was tried without diffidence. The part affected was on the forehead, about half way between the left eye and the spot where the horn would have been, and the skull over the part was so soft that a very slight pressure of the thumb was only necessary to depress it. The sheep was set upright on its rump, and I cut round the soft part with a sharp knife pointed like a pruning-knife, the circle enclosing a space larger than a shilling. A small piece of the skull was left to act like a hinge to the piece thus cut round. This part of the skull, with the skin and hair upon it, was lifted up like a lid, so as distinctly to show the hydatid, having the appearance of a bag containing water. But, large as the incision was, it was not large enough to admit of the hydatid being taken out entire. Indeed, the skin of it was so very tender, that I doubt whether it could have been taken out entire. At all events, it broke in the removing, and contained a large quantity of warm limpid fluid, which ran down the face without interruption, and literally poured over the nose for some seconds. After being satisfied that all the fluid was absorbed by a sponge, I put a plaster of common tar on a piece of soft leather over the wound, and covered the upper part of the head with a stout linen firmly secured with strings round the neck and below the jaw-bones. So immediate was the good effect of the operation, that the eyes of the animal, which were before almost turned round in the socket, resumed their natural position and appearance. The creature was confined for a few days in a small shed which was erected for sheltering ewes that were lambing at night, and fed

the body, as in the in these organs.

cap,

This globular substance, which frequently gives the name of "Water in the Head" to this disease, is known to be an animal. By what means it It is also found in other parts of finds its way to the brain is not known. liver and spleen. In swine and dogs it is very common It is either found in the ventricles, or at the surface of the brain. In the latter case, a softness of the skull is discernible, and is generally on the opposite side to that on which the animal holds its head. But this softness of the skull is not discernible when the disease is in the ventricle.

on greens, of which it soon got very fond. It was put out to the new grass along with the first of the ewes that went with their lambs, and soon perfectly recovered, its cap getting leave to remain on its head all summer for fear of the flies. It bore lambs, twins each time, for two seasons after the operation; and, when afterwards sold, it was one of the heaviest and fattest in the lot.

I would now have no hesitation to attempt a similar operation under the like circumstances, and I certainly do think the trepanning a surer method of cure, when the skull indicates a softness in any part of it, than the thrusting a wire up the nostril, through which it can be directed only at random. If, however, the hydatid is situated in the ventricle, or anterior part of the brain, a wire reaches it more readily in this direction than in any other. I am, &c.

S.

ON THE TALA PLANT AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR THORN IN HEDGES.

Communicated by the Right Honourable SIR JOHN SINCLAIR, Baronet. In a Letter to the Editor.

SIR,

My attention was some time ago directed to a South American plant, which, from the properties it was represented to possess, seemed calculated to supply the thorn of our common hedges. Having requested a more particular account of it from the intelligent gentleman to whom I was first indebted for my information on the subject, I have the pleasure of transmitting to you his letter, which, I trust, will prove interesting to the readers of your Journal, not only as making us acquainted with the uses of a plant which may perhaps form the subject of cultivation at home, but as apprizing us of the extent to which the colonization of our countrymen has taken place in the South American States. While, in one sense, it is gratifying to observe the extension of the useful arts by the prodigious facilities now afforded of communication with the most distant regions, it affords us some subject of melancholy reflection, that

so many of our industrious countrymen should be forced, by the want of employment at home, to become the subjects of a foreign state, and thus to carry those abilities, and that capital and spirit of enterprize, to other countries which might have been employed so happily in their own. I remain, &c.

"I have much pleasure in sending you, as you requested, some particulars regarding the Tala hedges which have proved such useful fences in the hands of some of our intelligent countrymen settled in Buenos Ayres. My attention was particularly directed to them a short time before leaving that country in May 1828, it being then the commencement of the winter months in that part of the world. I had been induced to pay two visits to Monte Grande, distant about fifteen miles from Buenos Ayres, where upwards of 300 Scotch farmers had been settled and occupied in agricultural pursuits during three years, and had then in their employ, principally as labourers, more than 200 natives of the country, many of whom had become acquainted with the improved method of farming followed there by our countrymen; who, by judiciously engrafting on the modes of husbandry practised in the country, such of the rules to which they had been previously accustomed in their own country, as seemed best suited to the climate and circumstances of their new situation, had already given to that district an interest and importance which had never before been witnessed in that part of the world.

"On these occasions I was particularly struck with the efficiency of the hedges which in some places had been formed and rendered useful in the few years during which they had been there; and to the inquiries I then made, I obtained the following particulars: That on their first arrival they were so ill pleased with the fences in use at Buenos Ayres, which are formed of Tuna (Cactus peruvianus) and the American aloe, which, with other defects, harbour vermin of all kinds, that they resolved to try something else, more analogous to the hedges they had been accustomed to in Scotland. They selected for this purpose the Tala, a small thorny shrub, growing wild in various parts of the country. This they planted in rows, and treated nearly in the same manner as is usually practised with thorn