Cattle 1853 - Lewis Family Farm

THE FORAMINA OF THE FOREHEAD. 147
find the beast rapidly becoming dull and drooping, and carrying his
head on one side. Either grubs or worms have crept up the nostril,
and are a source of irritation there ; or inflammation, at first merely of
the membrane of the nose, and connected with common cold, has
extended along the cavity, and is more intense in some particular spot
than in others ; or has gone on to suppuration, and matter is thrown
out and lodged there, and generally about the root of one of the
horns. The veterinary surgeon either opens the skull at the root of
the horn, or, in a more summary and better way, cuts off the horn at
its root. More than a pinv of pus sometimes escapes ; and although
there may not be throwing out of pus, yet the inflammation will be
materially relieved by the bleeding that follows such an operation.
The opening into the sinus which is thus made should be speedily
closed, or the air will render the inflammation worse than before.
On account of the vast extent of cavity from the communication
between all the partitions of the sinus, the ox occasionally suffers
much from the larva of a species of fly that creeps up the nose and
lodges in some part ; the annoyance is sometimes so great as to be
scarcely distinguished from phrenitis. This does not often happen ;
for the sinuses are more the accidental than the natural and regular
habitation of these insects.
THE USE OF THESE SINUSES.
These plates of the skull are separated from each other at least an
inch at all places, and in some parts more than double that distance
(see cut, p. 144). The skull is the covering of the brain. The weapons
of offence spring from the skull, and are often used with terrible
effect about the skull. The polled cattle use their heads as weapons
of offence, and butt each other with tremendous force. If the frontal
bone were so solid as almost to resist the very possibility of fracture,
yet if the brain lay immediately underneath it, the concussion from
the shock of their rude encounters would be dangerous, and often
fatal. Therefore the bones are divided into two plates, and separated
as widely as possible from each other, where, as at the parietal crest,
and the root of the horn, the shock is most likely to fall. There are
also inserted between the plates numerous little perpendicular walls,
or rather scales of bone, (see c, p. 144,) of wafer-like thinness, which
give sufficient support to the outer plate in all ordinary cases, and by
their thinness and elasticity afford a yielding resistance capable of
neutralizing almost any force. If the external plate is fractured, the
inner one is seldom injured.
THE FORAMINA OF THE FOREHEAD.
There are marks of contrivance in the structure of the head of the
ox, which should not be passed over. The large expanse of the