DIARRHCEA OF THE YOUXG. G43 



-calves, and witli tliem can testify both as to its apparently 

 contagious and certainly fatal character; amongst solipeds, 

 however, although it may not unfrequently be extensively 

 distributed, it is not apparently contagious nor yet so fatal. 

 This mitigation in virulence is probably attributable to the 

 better sanitary conditions and the less crowding of stables as 

 compared with cow-houses, together with the more natural 

 manner in which foals are reared. 



Causation. — From what I have observed of this condition 

 when appearing amongst the young of all animals there seem 

 very cogent reasons to induce us to regard as the chief source 

 of its existence certain unnatural conditions of dietary. That 

 it may, when once developed, be further propagated and in- 

 tensified by contagion emanating from the diseased seems, 

 at least in bovines, probable ; while it is certain that the 

 usual debilitating influences of defective or bad sanitary sur- 

 roundings are decidedly predisposing and augmentative. In 

 foals, amongst which in this country it partakes less of the 

 character of a specific epizooty, its contagious character is 

 not manifested. It is highly probable that certain ill-under- 

 stood determining influences operating on the dam may pro- 

 duce such alterations on the lacteal secretion as to render it 

 inimical to the performance of healthy functional activity in 

 the digestive process in the very young. 



We know it is found that in many instances successful 

 treatment of this infantile diarrhea in foals is largely facilitated 

 by operating on the mare. The system of separating the foal 

 from the dam during long intervals each day while the latter 

 is engaged in work seems more frequently attended with an 

 occurrence of diarrhoea in the former than when the two are 

 left continuously together. In those instances where the 

 mares are kept at work during the greater part of the day 

 they often return to their foals heated and more or less 

 exhausted and fatigued ; in this way it seems possible that a 

 certain character or influence of an unfavourable nature may 

 be imparted to the milk — add to which the disposition the 

 young animal possesses from its enforced abstinence to take 

 more than a natural or wholesome amount. At the same 

 time we must not forget to note the influence which the 

 presence of constitutional maladies in the dam, and the recep- 



41—2 



