GASTRO-ENTERITIS. 311 



appears hardly to have found a place in British veterinary- 

 medicine. Under my own observation, gastro-enteritis has 

 proved anything but a disease evincing activity or imme- 

 diate alarm of symptom. The horse evinces, soon after 

 attack, extreme dulness and depression; manifests indifference, 

 indeed aversion, to every kind of food, though he drinks ; 

 the coat loses its shining aspect and becomes lustreless and 

 dead ; there is general coldness of skin, with cold ex- 

 tremities ; the mouth is moister than usual, having a soapy, 

 sliiveiy feel, and shows a kind of dull red, yellow aspect, as 

 though the membrane was injected in part with bile; the 

 tongue is brown and dry upon its dorsum, but grows red 

 and moist along its borders and towards its tip ; the same 

 yellow-red condition is manifest in the conjunctival mem- 

 branes, as in the buccal, and also in the ISchneiderian as 

 well; in some cases there is swelling of the legs present; 

 the bowels may be constipated rather at first, but the 

 smallest dose of aloetic medicine sets the patient off 

 purging; diarrhoea follows, in which the discharges are, 

 though at first sparing, of the consistence and appearance 

 of cows^ dung, though very nearly or quite liquid, and of a 

 peculiar dirty dark-brown colour, and, though not at the 

 begining, towards the latter stages, fetid in their character : 

 indeed, at this time, the mouth also becomes fetid, and 

 sometimes extremely so. The pulse will rise to 70 

 or 80. The respiration is not at first disturbed, though it 

 may turn so before death,, which is but too apt to be the 

 termination. 



Post-mortem. — We find the mucous lining of stomach 

 very much inflamed, and of a Modena-red colour ; the same 

 lining of the small intestines slightly affected, but the colon 

 generally intensely so, though in some cases the inflammation 

 of the stomach is greatest. The liver is pale and clay-coloured. 

 The thorax is free from any diseased appearance connected 

 with the complaint. 



The Treatment of such disease I have always considered 

 to be best conducted on principles of caution, without 

 running into any danger of doing harm by depletion, or, on 



