SEMIOLOGY OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



107 



opening, and detects the existence of any desquamation, rents, eruptions, 

 ulcerations, etc., which may be present. 



In quiet animals the practitioner can examine the cavity of the mouth 

 single-handed, but in troublesome animals it becomes necessary to have 

 an assistant, who seizes the muzzle with one hand and the tongue with 

 the other, or who simply fixes the animal's head. In exceptional cases 

 it will be necessary to secure the patient to a post, tree, or wall. The 

 mere attempt at examination will show whether there is trismus or 

 absolute freedom of movement in the jaws. 



By introducing the fingers between the commissures and applying 

 them to the bars or to the free 

 portion of the tongue, the prac- 

 titioner will be able approxi- 

 mately to estimate the local and 

 general temperature. The sen- 

 sations experienced will also 

 inform him of the degree of 

 moisture or dryness of the 

 mouth and of its sensibility. 



On separating the jaws, he 

 will note the odour exhaled and 

 .its possible abnormalities — its 

 acid, sourish, foetid, or putrid 

 character. He will directly ob- 

 serve any anaemia or hyper- 

 emia of the mucous membrane, 

 from the inner surface of the 

 lips and cheeks up to the soft 

 palate, although owing to the 

 thickness of the buccal epithe- 

 lium it is not always easy to 



estimate anaemia or hyperaemia in the ox. The surface of the tongue 

 should also be examined, and a note made whether it appear dry, pasty, 

 dusty, sooty, etc., though these appearances are occasionally apt to lead 

 one astray. The observer should also inquire regarding want of appetite, 

 depraved or exaggerated appetite, etc. 



Even the manner in which the animal picks up its food will serve 

 to direct his attention to the development, or possible existence, of some 

 disease of the mouth, although want of appetite is not always charac- 

 teristic of a lesion in the pharynx or oesophagus, but sometimes of a 

 lesion in its neighbourhood, like hypertrophy of the retropharyngeal or 

 bronchial lymphatic glands. 



This examination will also detect the existence on the lips of wounds, 



Fig. 57. — Examination of the mouth. 



