DISEASES OF THE ABOMASUM, OR FOURTH STOMACH. SI'j 



except soft or almost fluid mashes, but the animal may be indulged 

 in water or thin gruel without limit. Clysters can have httle effect, 

 and wuU only uselessly tease the animal, already sufficiently annoyed 

 by frequent drenching. 



After all, it may be doubtful whether the injury and danger 

 produced by the distension of the manifolds with food is not some- 

 times brought about in a different way from that which has been 

 hitherto imagined. This stomach has already been described (p. 

 288), as situated obliquely between the liver and the right sac of 

 the rumen, and, therefore, when distended by food it will press 

 upon the liver, and impede the circulation through the main ves- 

 sel that returns the blood from the intestines to the heart, and 

 thus cause the retention of an undue quantity of blood in the 

 veins of the abdomen. From this will naturally or almost neces- 

 sarily arise a determination of blood to the brain, and the winding 

 up of the disease by a species of apoplexy. This, however, will 

 not alter the opinion that has been given of the proper treatment 

 of the disease, but will throw considerable light en the nature and 

 causes of some of these determinations to the head, which have not 

 hitherto been perfectly understood. 



THE DISEASES OF THE ABOMASUM, OR FOURTH STOMACH. 



Our knowledge of the nature, and symptoms, and treatment of 

 these diseases is as imperfect as those of the manyplus. Concretions, 

 and mostly of hair, are occasionally found in this stomach, which, by 

 their pressure, must produce^ disease to a certain extent. Poisonous 

 substances, received into this stomach after rumination, as is some- 

 times the case when the plants are fully grown, from the deficiency 

 of acute taste in the ox, and which oftener happens when, in spring, 

 neither their taste nor their smell is developed, produce inflammation 

 and ulceration of the coats of the abomasum. Inflammation may 

 and does exist from other causes, as exposure to too great heat, and 

 the continuance of unseasonable cold and wet weather, too sudden 

 change of food, the administration of acrid and stimulating medicines : 

 but the practitioner can rarely distinguish them from inflammatory 

 disease of the other stomachs, or of the intestinal canal. 



So far as the symptoms can be arranged, they are nearly the fol- 

 lowing : there is fever ; a full and hard pulse at the commencement, 

 but rapidly changing its character and becoming small, verj' irregu- 

 lar, intermittent, and, at last, scarcely to be felt except at the heart. 

 The beast is much depressed and almost always lying down, with its 

 head turned towards its side, and its muzzle, as nearly as possible, 

 resting on the place beneath which the fourth stomach would be 

 found, or when standing, it is curiously stretching out its fore hrabs, 

 with its brisket almost to the ground. The inspirations are deep, 



