DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. 677 



healthy condition. In young calves, indigestion, associated with 

 convulsive fits, is sometimes due to hair-balls; these after a 

 time become gradually disintegrated by the movements of the 

 stomach, and the symptoms may slowly disappear. In rare 

 instances hair-balls are found in fully grown cattle, and, as in 

 calves, result from the animals licking each other. In calves 

 the symptoms of urgency are often relieved by stimulants, such 

 as the carbonate of ammonia or turpentine ; should the indi- 

 gestion, however, remain for a considerable period, recourse 

 must be had to the operation already referred to. It may be 

 here mentioned that common salt given in the food promotes 

 digestion in all animals. In the dog indigestion is mani- 

 fested by frequent retchings or vomitings and fcetor of the 

 breath, and is best treated by a brisk purgative, antacids, and 

 a restricted diet. 



INDIGESTION WITH ENGORGEMENT — IMrACTION OF THE STOMACH — 

 PLEXALVIA — GASTRIC TYMPANETES — HOVEN. 



Distension of the stomach may arise from repletion with solid 

 food, or from the evolution of gases arising from solids or 

 liquids contained within it undergoing the process of fermenta- 

 tion, or disengaged from the gastric walls when the stomach is 

 empty, as occurring in conditions of great prostration. 



The causes in the Horse. — Impaction of the stomach results 

 from the ingestion of food too abundant in quantity, or greedily 

 swallowed and imperfectly masticated. In these parts of the 

 country where the cooking of food for horses is a common custom, 

 it is found that deaths from diseases and lesions of the digestive 

 apparatus are very common. From the reasons abeady hinted 

 at, namely, that it is necessary for the food to undergo not only 

 the process of trituration by the teeth, but that it requires to be 

 chemically altered by combination with the saliva, it will be 

 understood that food prepared in any other way, as cooking by 

 boiling and steaming, is unfitted to be acted upon by the 

 stomach, and is consequently retained within it — the animal 

 meanwhile continuing to eat — until its walls become distended, 

 paralyzed, or even ruptured. 



Some kinds of food, nutritious in themselves, and theoretically 

 calculated to be proper for the horse, are found practically to 

 be highly dangerous. Wheat, for example, which is highly 



