Ulceration of the Intestines. 339 



diseases the tendency appears to be to attack the intervals be- 

 tween the folds of the mucosa, probably because the bacteria of 

 ulceration find a safer lodgement in such places. In the hog 

 cholera ulcers the older ulcers tend to the circular form with 

 thick mass of necrotic tissue in the form of plates or scales im- 

 bedded in the bottom and projecting above the adjacent surface 

 of the mucosa. As a rule the microbes which in the different 

 cases preside over the necrobiosis are found in the depth and 

 walls of the ulcers. 



The symptoms are largely those of the diseases of which the 

 ulcers are a concomitant or result. There is usually diarrhoea, 

 which is generally black from extravasated blood, and may be 

 marked by fresher red bloody striae. Sloughs of variable size 

 are not at all uncommon in the faeces. Hyperthermia is usually 

 more intense than in ordinary chronic enteritis, indicating the 

 action on the heat producing centres of the necrosing microbes 

 and their toxins. In pigs and dogs there may be vomiting of 

 dark blood stained material or of feculent matter. In the small 

 animals it may be possible to feel through the walls of the abdo- 

 men the thickening of the intestine at and around the seat of 

 au}^ extensive ulcer. 



Treatment. So far as this is not the treatment of the foreign 

 bodies, poisons, or specific fevers which cause the ulcers, it 

 consists mainly in careful dieting and the use of antiseptics such 

 as subcarbonate of bismuth, salol, salicylic acid, sodium salicylate 

 or naphthol. 



