304 DISEASES or THE INTESTINES. 



reddening of the conjunctive and pituitary membranes, whose vessels are 

 injected. The pulse, at first full and hard, becomes feeble and accele- 

 rated. These symptoms often endure two or three days without any 

 great accession : afterwards they daily appear more marked, and, when 

 once they have acquired their greatest intensity, the dejection and heavi- 

 ness becomes extreme ; the heaving of the flanks hurried ; gaping and 

 grinding of teeth frequent ; coat dull and on end ; mane and tail easily 

 plucked out. After a time the mucous membranes change their red for 

 a livid tint, and emaciation ensues. 



Complications. — With these phenomena become united, in both forms 

 of the disease and in every case, more or less disorder of the functions of 

 other organs. Divers phlegmonous complications make their appearance 

 in other parts of the digestive apparatus and its dependencies — in the 

 mucous membrane of the air-passages, in the brain, in the urinary passages, 

 in the organs of generation, and even at times in the skin. The sur- 

 excitation of the mucous membrane of the mouth may be regarded as 

 sympathetic, for it increases or diminishes in the same ratio as the gastro- 

 enteritic disorder itself does. According as the attack is sudden or pro- 

 tracted, this membrane is dry or clammy : the tongue rarely preserves its 

 natural complexion and humidity ; it has a more or less bright red aspect, 

 particularly towards its point and border ; its papillae and mucous follicles 

 are more or less developed ; its surface blanched, white, or yellowish, is 

 covered with a blackish epidermoid crust ; the organ acquires volume 

 and firmness, and exhibits sometimes along its under snYfa.ce phlyctejia;, 

 or else ulcerations more or less deep and extensive. In opening horses 

 that have died, points of inflammation have been detected upon the 

 pharynx and oesophagus ; sometimes even aphthae are found at the bottom 

 of the mouth : I have seen them in many horses. The large intestines 

 are sometimes inflamed, and even on some occasions the margin of the 

 anus may be observed to have grown red. The liver, with its peritoneal 

 covering and excretory ducts, participate in this sur-excitation. Gastro- 

 enteritis rarely exists in intensity for any time without re-acting upon the 

 mucous membrane of the respiratory passages, producing that sympa- 

 thetic phlegmasia which is known by a sort of rale, by a painful state of 

 throat and upper part of the windpipe, by embarrassed respiration, by 

 dilatation of the nostrils, by accelerated heavings of the flanks, by a short, 

 dryf hollow cough, by shakings, and occasionally by a discharge from the 

 nose of frothy mucous matter, sometimes, but rarely, yellowish. Inflam- 

 mation of the lungs may also be a complication : then the expiration 

 becomes more frequent, the respiration short and quick, the expired air 

 hot, and the pulse strong. Peritonitis and nephritis may likewise prove 

 complications. In the first case, the horse experiences abdominal pains 

 and rubs his lips ; in the second, there is inflexibility of the spine about 



