GASTRO-ENTERITIS. 305 



the lumbar region, and the animal evinces pain when pressed over the 

 kidneys : the urine is also redder and less in quantity. In fine, when 

 gastro-enteritis is most intense, the consequent uneasiness and fatigue 

 are often attributable to the brain ; the derangement of which is indicated 

 by the extended neck, the heat and heaviness about the head, the droop- 

 ing attitude, the resting point that he makes of the manger, and the 

 drowsiness he evinces. At the same time, the sight and hearing become 

 affected ; the conjunctiva looks red and injected, or it assumes a purplish 

 hue, which at the bottom often turns yellowish, and exhibits phlyctena; ; 

 the eyeball is inflamed, and the eye obscured; the muscles of the face are 

 irregularly contracted ; there is grinding of the teeth, often symptoms of 

 vertigo, and sometimes to that degree that some veterinarians — among 

 others, Dupuy — have regarded the gastro-enteritis of 1825 as a form of 

 vertiginous affection. This combination is especially fatal, and quickly 

 so, and particularly in old horses and such as are oppressed with work 

 beyond their powers, or otherwise debilitated. Phlegmasiae sympa- 

 thetically developed in the urinary passages and organs of generation, 

 will account for the changes in the urine before mentioned, for the agita- 

 tion of the tail, the frequent desire to stale, the erections of the penis of 

 the stone-horse, the outstretching of the legs of the gelding, the reddening 

 of the mucous membrane of the vulva of females, and the sense of heat in 

 introducing the hand into the vagina. The skin will not prove exempt 

 from becoming sur-excited, as will be evinced by its elevation of tempe- 

 rature, its state of dryness or sweat, the slight adherence of the hair, its 

 dull and rough aspect ; and, moreover, in some epidemics, by the buttony 

 eruptions manifest upon it. At the last, swellings rise upon the hind 

 legs or hocks ; oedema appears upon the belly, sheath, and breast ; the 

 scrotum becomes covered with a dried matter in place of the natural 

 unctuous secretion ; or else phlegmonous tumours form upon divers parts 

 of the body : some we have observed upon the parotids and breast. 



Autopsies. — Post-mortem inspections have shown different and various 

 diseases, according as gastro-enteritis has set in more or less suddenly, 

 been slow or rapid in its course, and more or less complicated with the 

 inflammation of some viscus or other part, besides the stomach and in- 

 testine ; for it is to be remarked, that constantly one organ is especially 

 attacked, and exhibits disease violent in proportion as other organs are 

 slightly afiected. The mucous membrane lining the stomach is more or 

 less reddened, particularly the portion within the right sac, the entire 

 surface of which sometimes appears so. Besides which it is injected, and 

 in some places ecchymosed. The red colour, proof incontestible of the 

 existence of inflammation during life, appears under a great variety of 

 shades. The deep brown tint shows gangrene, a change also indicated 

 by the friability of the part and its speedy progress to putrefaction after 

 II. 20 



