The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1877-02-01
Horn All and Hollow Horn.


We repeat, there is no such disease as horn
all or hollow horn. The horn is made up of
a number of closely compacted fibers, and is
of precisely the same composition and as in
sensible as hair; it is an outgrowth of the skin
itself, the matter of which it is composed is
secreted by that portion of the skin which
covers the frontal bones of the skull. The
horns are naturally hollow, being the covering
of a highly sensitive vascular core of bony
matter which goes or proceeds from the from
tai bones. The horns of themselves are
not subject to disease, but they are affected as
to their condition by the adjacent tissues, and
show by change of temperature, becoming
: hot or colo, when these are disordered When
an animal is hide-bound we do not suppose
the hide is disease but know its condition is
caused by change in the general health of
the animal. So with the horns if it is hollow,
signifies that the sensitive parts with which
1t Is connected are subject to an increased
circulation and are .indamed. In this case
the membranes which cover the frontal bones
and line the sinuses of the head and the
spongy bony cores beneath the horns are in
famed and the pus secreted from the infamed
tissue gathers 10 the sinuses or cavi-
ties of the skull and in the spongy interstces
of the cores of the horn. Here it remains
until the inflammation subsidies, when it is abb
sorbed or escapes through the opening. But
this is not disease of the horn at all, but of
the deep seated membrane of the head. In
other cases the horn is cold. This is symp-
tom of decreased circulation and of some
trouble elsewhere, probably in the intestines.
The fact is, the horns being placed in closer
proximity TO the skull and the brain, are
very good means of testing, by change of
temperature, the condition of the health of
an animal, as the head is affected very quick
ly by the least disorder OF the digestion, the
lntestines, or the blood. In an animal with
out horns, polled or ''muley" cow for in
stance, the structure is the same excepting
the absence OF the processes or
cores from the head and the
horns which cover them, there would be the
same symptoms precisely, but they would be
exhibited by the poll instead of by the horns,
and the top of the head would be
hot or cold, as the case might be.
When cow suffers from trouble in the diges-
tive organs, so az to affect her health, the
horns would appear cold, just as, in persons
suffering from collapse in severe diarrhea or
cholera, the inger-nails are cold and blue;
but the nails, which are exactly similar in
character ard alike in service to the horns,
are not supposed to be diseased, nor are the
horns in the case mentioned. When there is
congestion or largely-increased circulation of
blood in the vessels of the brain and head,
resulting from fevers of different kinds, cold,
catarrh, or other inflammatory diseases, the
horns will feel hot, and if there is brisk in
termination of the mucous membranes of the
head pus may collect in the sinuses and cavi-
ties of the horns, but there is no shorn-aiP'
or any disease of the horns whateyer,-N.
Y. Times.