THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS 207 



to 5 pints of water — proves fatal. Salt should also be given in the 

 animal's food. These precautions should be especially attended to 

 after wet seasons. 



313. Dysentery, or Bloody Flux, is an inflammatory action of 

 the lining membrane of the bowels, accompanied by ulceration, and, 

 in some cases, with extensive diarrhoea of a thin, bubbly character, 

 mixed with blood and having an offensive smell, and is both acute 

 and chronic. It is mostly caused by eating coarse food, grown on 

 undrained and moorland pastures. At one time it was of very fre- 

 quent occurrence in feeding bullocks, but of late years has not been 

 nearly so common. Sometimes neglected or chronic diarrhoea may 

 run into this complaint, and at other times it is a symptom of tuber- 

 culosis. Treatment. — Small doses of linseed oil and chlorodyne 

 should be given, and to these may be added from 30 to 60 drops of 

 oil of cloves, creosote, or carbolic acid {par. 1065, No. I.). Good, 

 nutritious, and easily digested food is highly necessary, such as 

 milk and linseed jelly to drink two or three times a day. As a rule, 

 however, treatment is very unsatisfactory, yet I have had good 

 results from the salt and iron medicine (par. 309). 



314. Peritonitis consists of inflammation of the serous mem- 

 brane, called the peritoneum, which lines the inside walls of the 

 belly and covers the outside of the bowels, and also forms the net or 

 mesentery. Injuries — the results of foaling, calving, lambing, or 

 castrating, and wounds penetrating the abdominal cavity — are the 

 principal causes of peritonitis, while, at times, it occurs without any 

 appreciable cause whatever. This disease steals on so insidiously 

 that the affected animal is generally at death's door before much 

 notice is taken of it. This is especially noticeable in the horse, 

 which generally dies in a few hours after being noticed. But the 

 cow may linger on for a few days, having a dull, anxious look, with 

 eyes red and suffused, hurried breathing (which is mainly done by 

 the front ribs), moaning and grinding of the teeth, trembling of the 

 limbs, and deathly coldness pervades the whole body. The animal, 

 as it were, bleeds to death, owing to the watery portions of the blood 

 oozing through the walls of the bloodvessels into the abdominal 



