INFLAMMATION OF INTESTINES. 417 



are often accountable for these diseases, being mistaken for an- 

 teritis. True enteritis is regarded as inflammation of the mucouy 

 membrane of the intestines, unconnected with chemical or me^ 

 chanical irritants. In olden days, when the feeding and water- 

 ing of horses w^ere carried on under principles far less sound than 

 those now in vogue, enteritis was far more common than at 

 present. We can easily understand that colic which is due to in- 

 digestion and which is neglected or wrongly treated (as for instance, 

 by too severe purgatives), may easily run into enteritis ; the change 

 beinjr one of con2;estion into inflammation. 



SYMPTOMS. — The animal is in a state of " extreme restlessness 

 and distress ; he is either pamng, or repeatedly lying down and 

 rising again ; or else he is walking round his box, breathing hard, 

 sighing, and perhaps occasionally snorting. At lengtJi his respira- 

 tion becomes hurried and oppressed ; his nostrils widely dilated ; 

 his countenance painfully anxious and expressive of his sufferings; 

 his body bathed in sweat at one time, but at another cold, and 

 occasionally seized with tremor; and his tail erect and quivering. 



" The next stage borders on delirium. The eye acquires a wild, 

 haggard, unnatural stare ; the pupil dilates ; his heedless and 

 dreadful throes render approach to him quite perilous, in short, 

 he has become an object not only of compassion but of appre- 

 hension, and seems fast hurrying to his end; when all at once, in 

 the midst of agonising torments he stands quiet, as though every 

 pain had left him, and he was going to recover. His breathing 

 becomes tranquillised, his pulse sunk beyond all perception ; his 

 body bedewed with a cold, clammy sweat ; he is in a tremor from 

 head to foot, and about the legs and ears has even a death-like 

 feel. The mouth also feels deadly chill ; the lips drop pendulous ; 

 and the eye seems unconscious of objects. In fine, death and not 

 recovery is at hand. Mortification has seized the inflamed bowel ; 

 pain can be no longer felt in that which but a few minutes ago 

 was the seat of exquisite suffering " (Percivall). 



As inflammation of the mucous membranes is characterised by 

 a tendency to spread over the entire mucous surface ; the mucous 

 membranes of the eyelids and nostrils have an abnormally red 

 appearance in this disease. The internal temperature is high, 

 pulse wiry (small and hard) and frequent, the pain continuous, 

 and pressure on the abdomen by the hand causes pain. There is 

 generally more or less distension of the intestines from the evolu- 

 tion of gas, due to fermentation of food. 



The POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES are those of intense in- 



a c 



27 



flammation of the mucous membrane of the intestines to a greater 



