348 Inflammation of the Stomach and Intestines. 



(by acids, alkalies, phosphorus, arsenic, lead, mercury, croton oil, car- 

 bolic acid, cantharides, lupinai and other plants containing acrid sub- 

 stances. Consult text-books on Toxicology.)- Those forms of gastro- 

 enteritis will not be considered here, which occur in the course of acute 

 infectious diseases (anthrax, all forms of hemorrliagic septicemia, hog 

 cholera, rinderpest, influenza, distemper, dog typhoid, etc.). 



Etiology. In some cases gastro-enteritis develops after a 

 simple catarrh of the stomach or intestines or it is brought 

 about by the same factors which cause the latter. Liidecke saw 

 a hemorrhagic enteritis in cattle after the feeding of green sugar 

 beet leaves which contained sodium saltpeter. Similar cases 

 have been observed in horses which had died in collapse before 

 diarrhea had set in. AVith the exception of these types the most 

 frequent causes of gastro-enteritis are spoiled feed (socalled 

 mould poisoning, gastro-enteritis mycotica, mycosis intesti- 

 nalis). 



Herbivora sicken frequently after the ingestion of large 

 amounts of spoiled and mouldy feed. As such may be men- 

 tioned rotten and fermenting beets or cuttings of beets, po- 

 tatoes, to a lesser extent mouldy, moist grain or rough feed, 

 particularly if much contaminated with rust-fungi (see page 

 183). Marek has produced hemorrhagic enteritis in rablnts with 

 the uredospores of Puccinia graminis ; Push in the same animals 

 w^ith another fungus (Tilletia caries) ; other authors, however, 

 were not able to demonstrate experimentally the poisonous 

 nature of these moulds. The ingestion of bedding straw^ and 

 manure is sometimes also dangerous. Water from wells in the 

 neighborhood of cesspools, or water contaminated with animal 

 offal has repeatedly caused numerous affections. 



Carnivora very frequently develop a gastro-enteritis (meat 

 poisoning) after the ingestion of infected or spoiled meat. Meat 

 derived from animals which have suffered from certain infec- 

 tious diseases may exert its disease-producing influence by bac- 

 teria contained therein, by their toxins, or by ptomains subse- 

 quently formed, or by the combination of all three factors. Most 

 important in this respect are the pyogenic bacteria or rather 

 the diseases produced by such as septicemia and pyemia (puer- 

 peral fever, the various forms of wound fevers, purulent arth- 

 ritis, purulent inflammations of serous membranes, streptococci- 

 mastitis, enteritis, etc.). In carnivora the bacteria of meat 

 poisoning (see there) are of importance. Sometimes meat be- 

 comes dangerous on account of specific septicemic diseases such 

 as anthrax. In all septicemic diseases the circulating bacteria 

 and their toxins are found with the blood in the muscles and in 

 the internal organs. The dangerous nature of the meat may in- 

 crease after slaughter because the pathogenic bacteria may in- 

 crease further. 



In 1895 numerous fatal cases of gastro-enteritis were observe('i, in tlie southern 

 parts of Hungary, in dogs which had fed upon the meat of s-svine sick with hog 



