98 Veterinary Medicine. 



lucern (alfalfa), sainfoin, covvpea and other speciall}^ leafy plants, 

 which harbor an unusual number of uiicrobian ferments, and 

 which contain in their substance a large amount of nitrogenous 

 material favorable to the nourishment of such ferments are par- 

 ticularly dangerous in this respect. All of these are most dan- 

 gerous when wet with dew or when drying after a slight shower, 

 partly no doubt at times by reason of the chilling of the stomach, 

 but mainly because the ferments have been stimulated into activity 

 by the presence of abundance of moisture. Drenching and long 

 continued rains are le.ss dangerous in this respect than the slight 

 showers and heavy dews, manifestly because the former wash off 

 a large portion of the microbes, which under a slight wetting 

 multipl}' more abundantly. 



Frosted articles act in a similar way, partly when still cold by 

 the chilling and paralyzing of the stomach, but cold or warm, by 

 reason of the special tendency of all frozen vegetables to undergo 

 rapid fermentation when thawed out. This is true,of green food 

 of all kinds when covered by hoar-frost, of turnips, beets, pota- 

 toes, carrots, apples, cabbage, etc., which have once been frozen, 

 and of frosted turnips and potato tops, though, in the case of the 

 latter agent, a narcotic principle is added. 



In the case of Indian corn, the smaller cereal grains, and cer- 

 tain leguminous plants (vetches, tares, peas, beans) which have 

 the seed fully formed but not yet quite hardened nor ripened, 

 there is the double action of a paralyzing constituent and an ali- 

 ment that is specially susceptible of fermentation. 



Inflammatic'U of the rumen, already quoted as a cause, ma_v be 

 determined by hot as well as cold food, by irritant drugs and 

 poisons, and b}'^ narcotico-irritant and other acrid plants in fodder 

 or pasture. In the same way the inflammation caused b}- the in- 

 troduction of foreign bodies into the rumen, such as nails, tacks, 

 needles, pins, wires, knife blades, and masses of hair or wool 

 may at times cause tympany. 



The two main causative factors, of paresis of the rumen on the 

 one .side and of specially fermentescible food and a multiplicitj^ 

 of microbian ferments on the other, must be recognized as more 

 or less operative in different cases, and in many instances their 

 combined action mu.st be admitted. The tympany is the 

 symptom and culmination of a great variety of morbid causes 



