208 



ENTERITIS. 



Argentina under the names of diarrhcea, cnteque, or bovine pasteurellosis. 

 The hypothesis has not been verified, and Lignieres' treatment, said by 

 him to have succeeded in Argentina, always failed in Moussu's hand. 



The only point which seems admissible is that this disease, which 

 Moussu considered to have analogies with chronic sporadic dysentery 

 in man, is due to one or several organisms, which develop in the 



intestine and produce toxins, causing 

 diarrhoea, without, however, marked in- 

 fiammation of the intestinal mucous 

 membrane. 



Symptoms. The onset is often over- 

 looked. The diarrhcea gradually in- 

 creases without appearing to be very 

 serious ; but it persists in varying de- 

 grees of intensity. The patients do not 

 appear to suffer, and do not lose their 

 appetite or spirits, but in time the 

 diarrhcea becomes exhausting ; they 

 waste, and after some months become 

 excessively thin and poor. 



Intestinal peristalsis becomes exag- 

 gerated without the existence of colic or 

 tympanites. The evacuations are fre- 

 quent, and little by little the abdomen 

 retracts, until, in horseman's parlance, 

 "the belly is up to the back," even in 

 cows of four, seven, and eight years' 

 bearing. 



The diarrhcea is serous, always foetid, 

 and without tenesmus. 



The ffeces may either be very soft 

 or be passed in veritable jets. They 

 are always a little discoloured, and 

 frequently contain grain or undigested 

 forage. They always contain numerous bubbles of gas. 



The wasting during later periods of the disease is absolutely 

 characteristic, and different from that of other wasting diseases, such 

 as chronic broncho-pneumonia, tuberculosis, etc. The patients finally 

 become walking skeletons. The red corpuscles of the blood progressively 

 decrease, until the number may fall as low as 800,000 or even 500,000 

 red corpuscles instead of six millions, the normal figure. The tedenia 

 common to wasting conditions appears, and the animals die without 

 suffering, in a condition of absolute exhaustion. 



Fig. 71. — Appearance of a patient 

 suffering from advanced chronic 

 diarrhoea. 



