Whenever ruminating animals are particularly hungry, or are excited by any other cause to eat too much food, they fill the paunch so full that it is unable to exert its power of separating the food it contains into small portions for mastication, and, the whole mass beginning to ferment in the paunch, gases are generated, which distend the paunch till it bursts, and the unfortunate animal is suffocated, unless it is relieved by puncturing the paunch through the hide, or by forcing an instrument called a probang down the throat into the paunch, and thus opening a passage for the gases to escape. A probang is a piece of whalebone with a bit of sponge firmly fixed to one end; but, if one is not at hand, a cane with a knot at the end, or even a riding-whip, with a thick end, would probably suffice. The best instrument is a kind of stomach pump; but that, of course, can only be had from a cattle doctor. When the paunch is to be punctured, the animal must be stabbed with a knife (a penknife will do) midway between the haunch-bone and the last rib of the left side; and the opening should be prevented from closing, by the introduction of a tin tube or something of that kind, till the gases are dispelled. In the South of France a proper instrument is kept for this purpose, made something like an oyster-knife, with a guard to prevent it from going too deeply into the animal. As soon as the animal is relieved a strong stimulant should be administered, such as half a pint of gin, or an ounce of hartshorn in a pint of ale; but the animal for some days should be fed sparingly, and a tonic composed of gentian, aloes, ginger, and blue vitriol, in powder, each one drachm, and oak bark in powder six drachms, made into a ball with honey, may be given every morning. As I have begun to speak of the diseases of cows, I may add that in cases of _cold_ and slight feverish symptoms, they are generally relieved by giving them half an ounce of nitre in a mash every night. Where there are any symptoms of inflammation, as, for example, if the nose is very red and hot and dry, and the cow appears very thirsty, and has her body so hard that she seems to suffer pain when it is touched, she may be bled, and a saline draught, composed of eight ounces of Epsom salts and four ounces of castor oil may be administered; or, if a stronger dose seems requisite, to these may be added half an ounce of powdered aloes, beaten up with the yolk of an egg, and mixed gradually with eight ounces of water. In _diarrhœa_, or _dysentery_, give four ounces of suet boiled in eight ounces of skim-milk, with six ounces of starch dissolved in boiling water, and one drachm of powdered alum; and keep the animal in a warm dry place, giving it mashes of barley meal or buck-wheat, but not of malt, and only a little water, which should be warm.