DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGAA'S. 125 



sufficiently account for their comparative immunity. Pigs 

 stand next in these respects, and last come the herbivora, with 

 their enormously long and capacious digestive organs, the slow 

 digestion as the food passes through the bowels, and the diffi- 

 culty or impossibility of getting quit of irritating agents by 

 vomiting. In the oi- .i?'»vl sheen there is the further complica- 

 tion of the four stomachs, the first three of which are little more 

 than riMcerating and triturating cavities, and in which an enor- 

 mous bulk of food is continually stowed away. From their 

 rapid collection and swallowing of food, poisonous, irritating, 

 and unnatural objects appear more liable to be taken in by 

 oxen, while horses suffer more from hurried feeding and from 

 hard work immediately after feeding. Horses, too, suffer much 

 from faults in watering, as excess of cold water when hot and 

 fatigued, causing stomachic and intestinal congestions, an excess 

 after feeding grain, washing that on undigested to ferment in the 

 bowels, etc. Again, all of the herbivora are especially subject 

 to digestive disorders from food that is unnaturally grown, or 

 spoiled in harvesting, so that in unfavourable seasons affections 

 of the stomach and bowels may spread like an epizootic. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE MOUTH. 



Causes. — Mechanical and chemical irritants. There may be 

 wounds, bruises, injuries with bit or twitch, irritant vegetables, 

 scalding food, snake and leech bites, stings of insects, injuries 

 from ropes tied round the lower jaw and tongue, from giving 

 "weak lye" and other irritants, especially to the horse, which 

 can resist swallowing liquids as long as he chooses, from pricks 

 with thorns, needles, and other sharp-pointed bodies, from 

 cutting, decay, over-growth, or irregularity of the teeth, from 

 rough dragging upon the tongue, from the use of mercury and 

 other salivating drugs, from parasitic growths, and from some 

 specific fevers (aphthous fever, rinderpest, etc.) 



Symptoms of General Inflammation of the Mouth. — Difficulty 



