i 9 2 VETERINARY LECTURES 



grinding its teeth, while, on pressure being applied to the spine 

 behind the shoulders, it is likely to fall on its knees, uttering painful 

 groans. The functions of the manyfolds being stopped, the leaves 

 of the organ become partially paralyzed from impaction of the 

 food. Any of the causes affecting the rumen may also occasion 

 derangement of this pouch, and a somewhat similar Treatment 

 must be adopted (par. 296). Small doses of purgative medicine, 

 with cordials (par. 1070, No. II.), and from 12 to 15 ounces of 

 linseed oil or castor oil, may be given with advantage every six or 

 eight hours, following up this treatment by offering small quantities 

 of rough oat-sheaf, dry hay, cabbage-leaves, etc., to induce and 

 encourage the action of the stomach, and hay, nettle, or bran tea 

 and cold water to drink to be offered freely. Occasionally foreign 

 bodies, such as stones, nails, etc., find their way through the open- 

 ing into this stomach, and stick there. I remember one case, in 

 which a flat stone got tightly fixed in the entrance. The animal had 

 a continuous dry, barking cough, held its head and nose straight out, 

 and would not touch food or water. I ordered it to be slaughtered, 

 and found the stone in the position named. The cough in this 

 instance was reflex, caused by pressure on a branch of the vagus 

 nerve. In another case five stones, a penny piece, and a nail, were 

 the bodies of obstruction ; while in a third a salmon fish-hook was 

 fixed through three of the leaves of this compartment. Inflammation 

 of the first, second, and third stomachs is very rare, either in cattle 

 or sheep. 



301. The Fourth, or Digestive Stomach, suffers most from 

 inflammation (gastritis), and is frequently caused by the drinking of 

 strong acids, or through mineral, alkaline, or fungoid poisons, etc. 

 As already stated, the first three stomachs, being merely preparatory 

 organs preparing and sifting the food for digestion by the fourth, are 

 lined by cuticular membrane resembling the outer skin, so that 

 poisonous materials rarely have much effect on them ; but when the 

 poison reaches the fourth stomach, with its fine velvety mucous 

 membrane and digestive function, it soon establishes its action. I 

 have known arsenic to have been taken by cattle, which showed no 



