202 MANUAL OF EQUINE MEDICINE. 



small intestines, whereas coarser and more indigestible food 

 containing much woody fibre, as over-ripe hay, rye-grass 

 and coarse straw, is more apt to accumulate in the large 

 intestine, causing disordered action, inflammation, or even 

 paralysis of the intestinal muscular tissue. The same 

 authority also mentions that boiled food is apt to be re- 

 tained in the stomach, and if given in excess may cause 

 distension, inflammation, paralysis, and even rupture. 



Lastly, it should be remembered that it is not only 

 the quality of the food which may set up disorders in the 

 alimentary tract, but that irregularity in diet and full 

 feeding after exhausting work are also very liable to induce 

 disease. 



ECTION I. 



DISEASES OF THE MOUTH AND THROAT. 



STOMATITIS.— Inflammation of the mouth occurs in 

 several forms, and we have already considered a contagious 

 disease of the horse in which the specific pustular formations 

 have their special seat on the buccal membrane. 



Causes. — Stomatitis is most frequently met within young 

 animals, and is especially predisposed to by malhygienic con- 

 ditions and improper dieting. It may be due to local irri- 

 tation or to mechanical causes, and is sometimes produced 

 by extension of morbid action in the parts near, or may 

 follow disorders of the alimentary canal. 



It often occurs in animals debilitated by disease, and is 

 in many instances traceable to certain vegetable fungi, or 

 to a special acarus. The oidium albicans, one of the hypho- 

 mycetes, has long been recognised as the active cause of 

 some forms of stomatitis. 



