There was a squabble about the Riuderpest in the British
Association on Tuesday. Dr. Shettle traced it " to those electrical changes which have prevailed so extensively of late in this portion of the globe, in withdrawing from the blood of cattle certain pro- perties essential to health and life." Dr. Crisp said it had nothing at all to do with electricity. Dr. Shettle reiterated that it had, and there the dispute ended ; but Dr. Shettle has since written to the Times to explain his theory. He says the iron found in the blood of all animals is there to attract away the electricity from. the lungs to all parts of the body, and that in certain states of the atmosphere more iron is required for this purpose. In fact. the cattle want more lightning-conductor in the blood than they have got, and he recommends sesquichloride of iron, maintaining, that Lord Granville's rusty pipes at Child's farm did not iron the water enough. On the important testimony of experience, how- ever, Dr. Shettle speaks vaguely and darkly. He thinks the remedy would " act as a charm," from his knowledge of what. it does in human typhus, but he has evidently had no patients among the cows.
