236 A MANUAL OF VETERINARY PHYSIOLOGY 



If this be accepted — and it is fortunately capable of proof — it 

 considerably narrows the causes of death from intestinal affections, 

 and groups them mainly under two heads : (a) Inflammation of the 

 bowels, and (b) displacement of the bowels. 



Enteritis, by which name inflammation of the bowels is known, 

 is spoken of as a common disease of the horse, but here again we join 

 issue with accepted doctrines, and urge that it is an uncommon 

 disease. Further, that in the large majority of so-called cases of 

 enteritis, some displacement of the bowels with interference to the 

 circulation has occurred. That uncomplicated enteritis may«exist 

 is not disputed, but we urge its relative infrequency, and press the 

 point that what looks like inflammation is more often strangulation . 

 When a deep purple thickened coil of intestine is found on opening the 

 abdomen, such a case is not enteritis. The colour indicates that the 

 blood-supply has been imprisoned as the result of strangulation, and 

 an identical appearance would have been obtained by ligaturing the 

 bowel. "When half the double colon is found purple, thickened, filled 

 with blood-stained fluid ingesta, the wall of the bowel being friable 

 and its mucous membrane purple, then, however much we may be 

 tempted to speak of it as enteritis, it certainly is not this disease, but 

 strangulation. Enteritis must be reserved for that condition of 

 bowel in which the mucous membrane alone is inflamed. Such a 

 bowel may give no external indication of trouble ; the general 

 vascular supply is not interfered with ; the full intensity of the 

 trouble falls on the mucous membrane, and such a condition may be 

 experimentally produced by the administration of an irritant poison. 

 It is probable that in the horse the majority, if not all the cases, of 

 pure enteritis met with, are due to a poison produced during the 

 process of digestive metabolism (see p. 221). That the presence of 

 an irritant without a poison has no such effect is abundantly 

 proved by the pounds of sand, gravel, and calculi horses may carry 

 in their intestines for months, perhaps years, without producing 

 any apparent ill effect, certainly without producing enteritis. 

 Similarly, gastritis, excepting as the result of poison, is practically 

 unknown. 



Our object in the above remarks is to focus attention on the defects 

 in clinical observation, and to attempt a physiological analysis of 

 the most frequent, the most fatal, and by far the most acutely painful 

 and distressing group of diseases that any animal is exposed to. 

 There is nothing in the whole range of comparative pathology, 

 including the diseases of man, which compares in violence, sudden- 

 ness, and mortality with digestive diseases of the horse. We have 

 attempted to show how physiology is capable of enabling us to steer 

 along a moderately exact course, for it is certain that unless we are 

 agreed regarding the nature of the lesions found at post-mortem 

 examination, we cannot reach that goal which is the object of our 

 existence as a profession, and of which physiology is only the humble 

 handmaid. 



What is the most common cause of death among horses from 

 intestinal affections, whether affecting the large or small bowels ? 

 There is only one answer to this, and time and careful inquiry will 

 prove its accuracy. The answer is Strangulation of the bowels, 

 partial or complete. This strangulation is capable of physiological 

 analysis. The most unobservant person cannot overlook a bunch of 

 small intestines so tied together as to defy all attempts at unravel- 

 ling, even when out of the body, but it takes no little careful observa- 



