THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS 193 



ill-effect till the fourth and up to the eighth day, when the poisonous 

 action set in, killing them in from four to six hours. The abdominal 

 pain, perspiration, and excitement in these cases were something 

 frightful to see ; the animals became quite frantic, then dropped 

 down, and died suddenly. Drinking water from streams wherein 

 coal wash has been discharged is said to have an injurious effect on 

 this stomach, causing great emaciation, hide-bound, chronic diarrhoea, 

 and eventually death. I have been engaged in several litigations 

 relative to this, and must say that I have never yet found any 

 injurious effects arise from cattle drinking the black coal water. 

 But should the washed material from the sides of the burning refuse 

 banks adjoining the coal-pit — charged as it is with free sulphuric 

 acid and sulphates — get into a stream, and animals be allowed to 

 drink this water for any length of time, chronic inflammation of this 

 stomach and of the bowels, with great emaciation and fatal diarrhoea, 

 is the result, followed by a slow, lingering death from inanition. 

 Irritation and inflammation of this stomach is at times also set up 

 by the irritating husks of castor or croton beans and other deleterious 

 seeds having been incorporated in feeding-cakes. Moulded cakes, 

 particularly undecorticated cotton-cake, have also a very injurious 

 and frequently fatal action on this stomach. Micro-organisms. — 

 Small worms— Strongylus contortus and other thread-like pests 

 which infest the lining membrane of this stomach and intestines of 

 both cattle and sheep — also cause great irritation, exhaustion, 

 diarrhoea, and extreme emaciation, and this is particularly the case 

 in young animals in cold wet seasons (par. 309). Treatment. — First 

 find out the cause, and, if possible, remove it, and follow the recom- 

 mendation laid down in par. 249. The post-mortem appearance of 

 the stomach resembles that exhibited in the horse, as noted in 

 par. 250. 



302. Lead-Poisoning is both acute and chronic. In the acute 

 cases the attack is sudden, and resembles stomach staggers (par. 304) 

 at first, or the latter stages of milk fever (par. 582), accompanied 

 by paralysis and coma, and may be caused by the animal picking 

 up spent bullets near rifle ranges or grazing on lands near lead- 



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