640 INTESTINAL SYMPTOMS AND FUNCTION.AX DISORDERS. 



Tcapidity as relates to the time occupied between the reception 

 of the offending agent and appearance of these. If put to 

 rapid or severe exertion, this is the more certain to be the 

 result. 



At first there may be little or no constitutional disturbance. 

 The ordinary discharges from the bowel are merely increased 

 in amount, not so much at each single evacuation, but from 

 the frequency of these ; steadily a more Hquid condition 

 of the excrement prevails ; and unless the offending ingesta 

 has been potatoes, I have not observed that this softened and 

 liquefied material is marked by much change in its colour or 

 odour, except that when continued, portions of partially 

 softened or digested fodder become more apparent amongst 

 the ejected matter. 



When raw potatoes have been the offending agents, the char- 

 acter of the constitutional symptoms, as also of the alvine 

 evacuations, is diagnostic. In these cases, from the com- 

 mencement of the attack the general prostration is great ; 

 sometimes abdominal pain is a prominent feature, and the dis- 

 charged fseces of a pale colour, watery, and of a peculiar and 

 penetrating odour. Somewhat similar symptoms are found to 

 exist even when these roots, if partaken of largely, are given 

 in a cooked form. 



Apart from potatoes, raw or cooked, the lax condition of the 

 bowels may continue for some time even while the animal is 

 at work, ere obvious disturbance is induced. Indeed, it is only 

 in exceptional instances, and when the dejections are con- 

 tinuous and distinctly watery, or the result of the action of 

 a direct irritant, mechanical, chemical, or medicinal, that con- 

 stitutional disturbance or local pain and uneasiness are atten- 

 dant symptoms. In such, nausea and depression are likely to 

 be exhibited, with irregular and patchy perspiration, often 

 rigors, and the peculiar condition of the skin recognised as 

 goose-flesh, indicated by a rising and falling of the hairy 

 covering. In others we have disturbed respiration, with 

 abdominal pain, the animal conducting himself much as m 

 ordinary colic, pawing a little, crouching, striking at his belly 

 with his hind feet, lying down rather carefully, and when down 

 disposed to rest. The pulse is not usually affected unless the 

 nausea is excessive, or during the paroxysms of pain. In the 



