GASTRIC CONCRETIONS. 399 



abdominal cavity/^ And, " half-protruding through an aper- 

 ture in the stomach, was a huge calculus, or bezoar stone, of 

 the enormous weight of 121bs. loz. avoirdupois/^ 



Mr. Morton observes, that ^' the composition of these con- 

 cretions enables us to trace them to their source. In the 

 cereal plants, certain of the phosphates are met with, and in 

 somewhat considerable quantities. It is, then, to the food 

 that we are to look for their origin, coupled with the morbid 

 state of the digestive functions, by which it does not undergo 

 the necessary change; probably, from the succus gastricus 

 not being sufficiently powerful to dissolve these phosphates, 

 in which state they must be before they can be assimilated. 

 A foreign body being now taken into the stomach, which may 

 be a nail, a piece of wire, or a pin, or a portion of granite, 

 quartz, glass, or any other substance, it serves as a common 

 centre, around which the phosphates arrange themselves in 

 their turn, and by the exertion of the force of attraction ; 

 and in so doing they blunt that which, by its sharpness, 

 would wound the lining membrane of the alimentary canal, 

 or by its asperities, excite in it a high degree of inflamma- 

 tion.-'^ " By my analysis of the stomachical (or gastric) 

 concretion, the phosphates will be seen to be those of mag- 

 nesia and ammonia/" and Liebig states that '^phosphate of 

 magnesia, in combination with ammonia, is an invariable 

 constituent of all the grasses." " If, from its magnitude, the 

 calculus is unable to pass through the pylorus of the stomach, 

 then that organ becomes its residence, where, by gradual ac- 

 cumulation, it acquires bulk." 



Cases such as these are not only undiscoverable, but 

 hopeless. The history and habits of the animal may lead to 

 conjecture ; the symptoms may lead to suspicion ; but, after 

 all, we remain in uncertainty and practical impotence. 



GASTRIC POLYPUS. 



Mr. Brown, V.S., Melton Mowbray, has a preparation of 

 a polypus which was taken out of a horse's stomach. 



The subject of it — an old brown horse, Sheffield— was 



