ii6 Veterinary Medicine. 



bismuth yi oz., powdered gentian y^ oz., and nux vomica 20 

 grains, twice a day. The appHcation of a mustard pulp or of oil 

 of turpentine on the left side of the abdomen may also be resorted 

 to. A weak current of electricity through the region of the 

 paunch for twentj^ minutes daily is often of great service. 



HAIR BALLS IN THE RUMEN AND RETICULUM. 

 EGAGROPILES. 



Balls of hair, wool, clover hairs, bristles, paper, oat hair, feathers, chitin, 

 mucus, and phosphates. Causes : Sucking and licking pilous parts, eating 

 hairy or fibrous products. Composition. Symptoms : Slight, absent, or, 

 gulping eructation, vomiting, tympany, in young putrid diarrhcea, foetid 

 exhalations, emaciation. Diagnosis. Treatment. 



Definition. The term egagropile, literally goat-hair, has been 

 given to the felted balls of wool or hair found in the digestive 

 organs of animals. The term has been applied very widely, 

 however, to designate all sorts of concretions of extraneous 

 matters which are found in the intestinal canal. In cattle the 

 hair licked from their .skin and that of their fellows rolled into a 

 ball by the action of the stomach and matted firmly together with 

 mucus and at times traces of phosphates, are the forms commonly 

 met with. In sheep two forms are .seen, one consisting of wool 

 matted as above and one made up of the fine hairs from the 

 clover leaf similarly matted and rolled into a ball. 



In pigs the felted nia.ss is usually composed of bristles, Texcep- 

 tionally of paper or other vegetable fibre), and in horses felted 

 balls of the fine hairs from the surface of the oat, mingled with 

 more or less mucus and phosphate of lime make up the concre- 

 tion. These are found in the stomach, and intestines. In 

 predatory birds the feathers and in insectivorous birds chitinous 

 masses are formed in the gizzard and rejected by vomiting. 



Causes. Suckling animals obtain the hair from the surface of 

 the manunary glands hence an abundance of hair or wool on 

 these parts favors their production. The vicious habit of calves 

 of sucking the scrotum and navel of others is another cause. In 



