170 INDIGESTION. 



are the same, nothing has hitherto been discovered in veterinary surgery 

 respecting possible variations in the chemical processes taking place in 

 the stomach during different gastric diseases ; and it appears not impro- 

 bable that in this direction causes might be discovered which veterinary 

 practitioners have hitherto sought elsewhere. Excess or insufficiency of 

 hydrochloric acid, and variations in the quantity of the organic acids, play 

 so important a part in the theory of gastric pathology in man, that it is 

 scarcely surprising to find similar ideas recurring in the pathology of 

 domestic animals. The correctness of these views remains to be proved ; 

 and without wishing actually to classify dyspeptic conditions as in man, 

 we may assert that diseases described under other names stand in direct 

 relation to variations in the gastric secretion or to disturbance of gastric 

 movements — e.g., simple chronic tympanites, which, without a doubt, is 

 often a neuro-motor dyspepsia. 



The classification we shall adopt in studying the diseases of the 

 gastric compartments is, therefore, extremely simple. In the first 

 series we shall consider sudden, accidental, and temporary forms of 

 indigestion, and in the second series, acute or chronic forms of gastric 

 inflammation. 



INDIGESTION. 



GASEOUS INDIGESTION. 



Gaseous indigestion, also described as indigestion of the rumen, is 

 characterised by the rapid accumulation of gases (chiefly carbon dioxide, 

 carbon monoxide, and marsh gas), due to fermentation in the upper 

 part of the rumen. It is common in oxen and sheep, and has received 

 the names of mephitic indigestion, acute tympanites, meteorism, etc. 

 It occurs during or immediately after feeding. 



Causation. Numerous causes have been invoked to explain the 

 sudden occurrence of gaseous indigestion. 



The most important is the particular condition of the animal at the 

 moment when it has been attacked. For if external influences alone 

 were responsible, there is no reason why all the animals of a given herd 

 or flock, or of a particular stable, which are under similar conditions 

 as regards feeding, etc., should not be affected in the same way. 



That the external causes cited (cold, excessive heat, stormy weather, 

 etc.) may affect different animals differently and unfavourably is beyond 

 doubt. But the temporary morbid condition of the animal itself is the 

 essential condition to the development of indigestion. 



In all probability the animal has in every case been more or less 

 unwell, except in those attacks of indigestion resulting from progressive 

 poisoning during the course of a meal, such as occur when toxic plants 



