ACUTE INDIGESTION — GORGED STOMACH, ETC. 615 



to give additional purgatives ; but good will result from the 

 daily administration of a ball containing half a drachm to a 

 drachm of aloes, with a drachm each of powdered assafoetida, 

 genj;ian^ and ginger. 



In those cases where the symptoms of coma and cerebral dis- 

 turbance are distinct features, where the pulse is full and slow, 

 and the breathing stertorous, the best results attend the early 

 and full abstraction of blood ; this bleeding, together with the 

 appHcation to the superior part of the head of woollen cloths 

 kept moist with cold water, and the exhibition of a smart 

 cathartic^ followed by treatment somewhat similar to that which 

 has already been indicated, is that which experience recom- 

 mends as most likely JgLbjL^TOdjactive Osgood. 



In the very young, foals, there is often encountered a form of 

 acute indigestion or derangement of the functions of the 

 stomach, the result of an irregular milk-supply consequent on 

 their removal from the dam for uncertain and lengthened 

 periods, the latter being sent to work, and returned to their 

 foals often in a heated and exhausted condition. Both from 

 the abstinence forced on the young creature, and consequent 

 disposition to take more milk when the opportunity occurs 

 than is compatible with healthy gastric digestion, and also from 

 the somewhat depraved condition of the milk, from not having 

 been removed at proper intervals, it seems in many cases that 

 these long-delayed and irregularly recurring feeding-periods 

 act injuriously. 



The curd which is originally formed in the stomach is not 

 redissolved, either from the simple repletion of the organ, or the 

 suddenness after a fast with which conditions are reversed, or 

 other changes entailing impairment of function ; or if altered 

 in part, the remainder proves an irritant, undergoing chemical 

 changes, and further disturbing digestion. In this gastric 

 disturbance in these young animals the accompaniment or 

 result is usually diarrhoea, which will be noticed when we 

 come to consider the unnatural conditions more properly 

 intestinal. 



B. CHRONIC INDIGESTION. 



Causation. — Of the agencies which are in operation to induce 

 chronic dyspepsia in the horse, the greater number may be 



