302 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



sideration of a disease wliicli in our own country has had too 

 little notice taken of it; while our professional brethren 

 across the Channel have ascribed an importance to it pro- 

 portionate with the reputation of the physician who first 

 obtained a place for it in human medicine^ — the celebrated 

 Broussais. Without going the length of this medical 

 philosopher, who asserted that four fifths of diseases consist 

 in irritation of the intestinal mucous membrane, and that 

 therein resides the essence of fever, we may, for some con- 

 siderable way, accompany our fellows, the French veteri- 

 narians, and with them admit that it is a disease which has 

 been much overlooked. To Girard, Dupuy, Bernard, and 

 Leblanc, are veterinarians indebted for excellent accounts of 

 it; and as tliese authors have been freely drafted from by 

 D'Arboval, I shall take the liberty of transcribing from the 

 work of the latter, in order that my reader may have the 

 very best observations on the subject laid before him for his 

 future consideration and guidance. 



GASTRO-ENTERITIS. 



In animals affected with this disorder, the local phenomena of inflam- 

 mation are unappreciable during life, in consequence of their inability to 

 express any sense of the inward pain or heat they may and do assuredly 

 feel. We can only suspect their existence by making pressure upon 

 divers parts of the abdomen with more or less comparative force, and 

 thus guess at the principal seat and extent of the inflammation. When 

 the disorder sets in rapidly, it is indicated by dejection, dulness, slight 

 anxiety ; head dependent and heavy, and hanging in the manger ; infiltra- 

 tion of the eyelids, which are half closed ; reddening with yellowness of 

 the conjunctiva; tearful eyes; deep and jerking respiration. Soon the 

 mucous membranes acquire the same hue as the conjunctiva, and are at 

 times infiltrated and tumefied. To these symptoms, are joined — loss of 

 appetite, often sudden ; a dry, clammy, foul tongue, red at its upper part 

 and around the borders ; more or less thirst ; stiffness of the spine and 

 hind legs, with difficulty in moving, and swelling of the latter, and stagger- 

 ing in the gait; weariness; alternate heats and chills about the ears. 

 Pulse at the commencement full and strong, and quick ; afterwards small, 

 hard, and thready. The belly becomes tense, but has rather a tucked- 

 up than an inflated appearance. On some occasions the attack is so 



