482 THE DISEASES AND DISORDERS OF THE OX. 



the tongue in the ox, we need not speak, as, whether due to 

 injury or to disease of the brain, it necessitates slaughter. 



Acute Tympanites. 



Acute tympanites, generally known as " hove," " hoove," or 

 "hoven," and also as "blown,^' "dew-blown," "fog-sickness," 

 and also under some other appellations, is a very important 

 disease in cattle and also in sheep. Indeed, this disorder is 

 liable to present itself among sheep in a severer form, though 

 perhaps not quite so frequently as in oxen. The disturbance 

 resulting from the accumulation of food in the rumen and of gases 

 disengaged from it may be so great that even asphyxia may be 

 brought about in consequence of the pressure of the stomach 

 on the lungs by the medium of the diaphragm. 



It is especially important for three reasons. Firstly, it is very 

 common — far commoner, indeed, than it should be, and thus, 

 from the frequency with which it is met with, it demands careful 

 consideration. Secondly, it is in most instances a preventable 

 malady, and, were the conditions to which it is to be attributed 

 more generally known, it would soon become more rarely 

 encountered. Thirdly, and lastly, although frequently fatal, it 

 is generally an essentially curable disease, and one which 

 should not be neglected. It should be studied, because it is 

 to the interest of the stock-owner to study it carefully and 

 thoroughly. 



The condition termed tympanites or hoven, depends upon dis- 

 tension of the first stomach, or paunch, or rumen, by gases. 

 The term tympanites {tympanuniy a drum) was given to this 

 disordered condition, from the very low-pitched note which is 

 emitted, when the left flank of animals whose rumen is thus 

 distended with gas is percussed. We may as well state, in the 

 first instance, that such accumulation of gas in the paunch is 

 the result of impaired digestion in this stomach, and that, 

 although generally seen as an independent affection, it is, never- 

 theless, very common in other disorders of the system. This 

 latter fact, indeed, is only what one would naturally expect 

 would be the case, seeing that in many disorders rumination is 

 suspended, and fermentation of the food thus results. 



The causes which one finds most commonly productive of 

 hoven are sudden changes in the diet, feeding upon green crops 



