U*6 DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. 



Dogs occasionally swallow various strange and unnatural substances*. 

 Considerable quantities of hair are sometimes accumulated in the stomach. 

 Half-masticated pieces of straw are ejected. Straw mingled with dung 

 is a too convincing proof of rabies. Dog-grass is found irritating the 

 stomach, or in too great quantities to be ejected, while collections of 

 earth and dung sometimes threaten suffocation. Pieces of money are oc- 

 casionally found, and lead, and sponge. Various species of polypus irri- 

 tate the coats of the stomach. Portions of chalk, or stone, or condensed 

 matters adhere to each other, and masses of strange consistence and form 

 are collected. The size which they assume increases more and more. M. 

 Galy relates an extraordinary account of a dog. It was about three years 

 old when a tumour began to be perceived in the flank. Some sharp-pointed 

 substance was felt ; the veterinary surgeon cut down upon it, and a piece 

 of iron, six inches in length, was drawn out. 



The following fact was more extraordinary : it is related by M. 

 Noiret. A hound swallowed a bone, which rested in the superior part 

 of the oesophagus, behind the pharynx, and caused the most violent 

 efforts to get rid of it. The only means by which it could be made to de- 

 scend into the stomach was by pushing it with the handle of a fork, 

 which, escaping from the hand of the operator, followed the bone into 

 the stomach. Two months afterwards, on examining the stomach, the 

 fork was plainly felt lying in a longitudinal direction, parallel with 

 the position of the body ; the owner of the dog wishing mechanically 

 to accelerate the expulsion of this body, endeavoured to push it back- 

 wards with his hands. When it was drawn as far back as possible, he 

 inserted two fingers into the anus, and succeeded in getting hold of the 

 handle, which he drew out nearly an inch ; but, in order to be enabled fully 

 to effect his object, it was necessary to make an incision into the rectum, 

 and free the substance from every obstacle that could retain it. This he 

 did not venture to do, and he was therefore compelled to allow the fork to 

 pass back into its former position. 



About three months after the accident, M. Noiret made an incision, 

 three inches from above to below, and the same from the front backwards. 

 He also made an incision through the muscular tissue. Having arrived at 

 the peritoneum, he made another incision, through which he drew from the 

 abdomen a part of the floating portion of the large intestines, and intro- 

 duced his fingers into the abdominal cavity. He seized the handle of the 

 fork, which was among the viscera, and free about half way down, and 

 drew it carefully towards the opening made in the flank. The other half 

 of the fork was found to be closely enveloped by the origin of the meso- 

 colon, which was red, hard, and inflamed. The operator freed it by cutting 

 through the tissues which held the fork, and then drew it easily out. The 

 animal was submitted to a proper course of treatment, and in three weeks 

 afterwards was perfectly cured. 



The food having been converted into chyme by the digestive power of 

 the stomach, soon undergoes another and very important change. It, or 

 a portion of it, is converted into chyle. It is mixed with the bile and a 

 secretion from the pancreas in the duodenum. The white thick liquid is 

 separated, and contains the nutritive part of the food, and a yellow pulpy 

 substance is gradually changed into excrement. As these substances pass 

 on, the separation between them becomes more and more complete. The 

 chyle is gradually taken up by the lacteals, and the excrement alone remains. 



