114 Veterinary Medicine. 



gut, care being taken to turn the mucosa inward and to retain the 

 muscular and peritoneal laj-ers in close contact with each other. 

 It will usually be convenient to cut first the two lower stitches 

 through the abdominal walls, and suture from below upward. 

 When fini.shed the peritoneal surface of the gastric wound may 

 be again sponged with the mercuric chloride solution, together 

 with the edges of the wound in the abdominal walls. Finalh' 

 the abdominal wound is sutured, the stitches including the skin 

 only or the muscular tissues as well. The smooth surface of the 

 paunch acts as an internal pad and support, and with due care as 

 to cleanliness, antisepsis and accuracy of stitching, it is rare to 

 find an}' drawback to continuous and perfect healing. It is well 

 to restrict the animal for three days to well boiled gruels, and for 

 ten days to soft mashes in very moderate amount lest the wound 

 in the paunch should be fatally burst open before a solid union 

 has been effected. 



RUMINITIS. INFLAMMATION OF THE RUMEN. 



Prevalence in different genera. Causes, as in tympany and impaction, 

 irritants, specific fevers. Symptoms : impaired rumination, tympanies, im- 

 pactions, depraved appetite, fever, nervous disorders. Lesions : hypereemia, 

 petechiae, exudates, ulcers, desquamation, swollen or shrunken papillae. 

 Treatment : remove cause, mucilaginous food, or gruels, sodium sulphate, 

 or chloride, bismuth, bitters, nuistard cataplasm, electricitj-. 



This is not a prevalent disease but affects animals at all periods 

 of life and is a cau.se of tardy and difficult digestion and rumina- 

 tion. It usually shows itself as a catarrhal inflammation and by 

 favoring fermentation in the food, and torpor of the muscular 

 walls of the organ contributes to t3'mpany and impaction. It is 

 more connnon in the ox than in the sheep owing, perhaps, to the 

 more habitual overloading of the stomach and to the hurried, 

 careless manner of feeding. In the goat it is rare. 



Causes. Among the causes may be named tympany and over- 

 loading, so that all the dietary faults that lead to these may be set 

 down as causes of inflammation. Irritants taken with the food, 

 whether in the form of acrid plants ( ranunculaceae, euphorbiaceae, 

 etc.), musty fodder, irritant products in spoiled fodder, aliments 



