Etiology. 275 



needles (shoemakers, needle makers, iron workers, spinning- 

 establishments). Sometimes gastric disturbances due to foreign 

 bodies appear in a herd in an almost enzootic manner. 



According to Eber's statistics of 235 correctly reported cases of paresis of 

 the rnnien (overfilling of the rumen, primary and secondary gastric atony) in cattle, 

 17.9% were due to foreign bodies. 



Among other ruminants (goats, sheep, buffaloes) foreign 

 bodies are more rare, being comparatively most common in 

 goats. 



Etiology. The frequent occurrence of foreign bodies in 

 the fore-stomachs of cattle depends upon the habits of these 

 animals to lick all possible objects accessible to them and often 

 to swallow them. Besides various objects are found in the 

 food containers, particularly in the poorly kept barns of small 

 farmers, which have gotten there with the garliage, the sweep- 

 ings, etc., or which are derived from the wardrol)e of female 

 attendants. Such objects are then easily swallowed with the 

 feed, the more so since cattle chew their food only very super- 

 ficially and coarsely before swallowing. (There is a case on 

 record of a perforated but otherwise complete egg shell being 

 found in the rumen of a cow.) Besides, the long papillae of the 

 tongue projecting posteriorly prevent foreign bodies from 

 falling out of the mouth. But even with good care the feed 

 may contain foreign bodies such as pieces of wire in pressed 

 hay, nails or pieces of wire which may have been derived from 

 burned wood and may have been swallowed in the pasture. 



Smaller foreign bodies vary a good deal as to their nature 

 and form; most dangerous are those of iron because they are 

 not changed by the juices of the fore-stomachs. Needles, pieces 

 of wire, nails, blades of knives, pieces of scissors are found most 

 commonly; less common and less dangerous are splinters of 

 wood, larger pieces of wood, leather, cloth, balls, pieces of 

 money and roots. 



Licking of the wall of the barn, pasturing on marshy places 

 with the ingestion of marshy or dirty hay often brings sand 

 in large quantities into the fore-stomachs and sometimes causes 

 extensive disease of cattle, particularly in inundated territories 

 (observed by Marconi in buffalo calves and by Miiller and 

 Prietsch in cattle). Drinking in shallow bodies of water may 

 also cause overfilling of the fore-stomachs with sand. 



Hairballs, which are to be looked upon as foreign bodies, 

 occur not uncommonly in the rumen, the omasum, occasionally 

 also in the abomasum of cattle and of other ruminants. Hairs or 

 Avoolen fibers which are taken up while licking their own body 

 or the bodies of other animals unite with vegetable fibers to 

 form spherical or ovoid bodies (Bezoare, ^gagropili) and be- 

 come covered by a brownish, smooth crust formed by mucus 

 and salts. Hairballs sometimes attain the size of a fist and 



