152 



THE FARM DOCTOR. 



stomach by food, poison, congestion, or inflammation, disease 

 of the brain, or of some other organ, which profoundly affects 

 the system, or which, hke the throat or gullet, has intimate 

 nervous relation with the stomach. It is therefore mostly a 

 symptom of other diseases, and in many cases of gastric irri- 

 tation is a means of relief. When due to direct irritation of the 

 stomach favour it by giving tepid water freely. When emptied, 

 the stomach may be soothed by ice, iced water, prussic acid, 

 creosote, carbolic acid, bismuth, nux vomica, lemon-juice, 

 camphor, etc. Gum and albumen may often be given to 

 sheath the irritated organ, and a blister may be placed on the 

 pit of the stomach. 



DEPRAVED APPETITE. 



Seen in dyspeptic horses, eating earth, lime, etc., in rabid 

 dogs swallowing all sorts of things, and in cows eating chalk, 

 earth, sand, gravel, wood, leather, iron bolts, and articles of 

 clothing, hair, bones, lead, etc. In many cases what is begun 

 as a habit is continued as a disease, the foreign bodies in the 

 stomach deranging the digestion and keeping up a morbid 

 craving. Pregnancy, tuberculosis, and a deficiency of phos- 

 phates in the soil and food are occasional causes in cows. The 

 habit should be checked by keeping tempting objects out of 

 reach, dealing with tuberculosis and chronic gastric catarrh as 

 advised under those heads, with a deficiency of phosphates, by 

 an abundant artificial feeding on sound grains and a course of 

 tonics, and with indigestible bodies in the stomach, by a careful 

 feeding to prepare the beast for slaughter, or that failing, by 

 opening the paunch on the left side and removing the offending 

 agent (see Impacted Paunch). 



FOREIGN P.ODIES IN STOMACH AND INTESTINES. 



These may be taken in by accident with the food, or may be 

 deposited from it in the form of calculi or concretions. 



