INDIGKSTION. 275 



and, perhaps, scurfy as well : nor is it shed at the usual 

 season. He is likewise hide-bound. His dung has not 

 the appearance it ought to have : it is either darker or 

 lighter than is natural, has an offensive odour, and, when 

 broken, crumbles to pieces, and appears to consist of lumps 

 of loosely compacted chopped hay, mingled with many entire 

 or imperfectly dissolved oats.. In the stable, the horse is 

 inclined to be costive ; but, when taken to work or exercise, 

 may be soon excited to purge. 



The Skin will be certain to sympathise with this dis- 

 ordered condition of the alimentary organs. The coat will 

 evince this. And, besides, some eruptive or morbid action 

 may be set up which we shall not get rid of until we have 

 corrected the digestion. Covered as every part of the skin of 

 the animal is with hair, we have no very accurate accounts 

 in what these eruptive or morbid a(;tions, arising from indi- 

 gestion, consist ; although the trite proceeding in practice of 

 dispersing them by means of a dose of physic, is as old as 

 any part of our therapeutics. This is a subject on which 

 we lack information. 



The SEAT OF Indigestion would appear, commonly, to be 

 the villous lining of the stomach and intestinal canal : both 

 these membranes furnish secretions indispensably necessary 

 for the due conversion of thefood into alimentary and faeculent 

 matters, and one or both of them may be functionally faulty. 

 Independently, however, of any derangement in these mem- 

 branes, many and various other causes might be mentioned, 

 sufficient of themselves to account for the incomplete per- 

 formance of <-he digestive process. Mastication may not 

 have been duly performed : the salivary secretion may be 

 bad or defective : the liver may not have done its duty — the 

 bile may be defective in quality or quantity, or the pan- 

 creatic juice may; or there may exist some derangement in the 

 peristaltic action, and consequent irregularity or defect in 

 the stay or progress of the alimentary matters. In fine, I 

 repeat, other causes may exist, notwithstanding irritation, 

 or inflammation, or disorder in some form or other of the 

 membranous lining of the stomach and bowels, appears to 



