TYMPANITIS. 171 



DISEASES OF THE THREE FIKST STOMACHS IN EUMINANTS : 



TYMPANITIS. HOVE. BLOWN. THE SICKNESS. 



FOG SICKNESS. " DEW BLOWN." 



By many more names than those here mentioned is the 

 disease known, which consists in distention of the paunch by 

 gas. The term tympanitis owes its origin to the drum-like 

 sound emitted on striking the belly of ruminants affected with 

 the disorder. 



Causes. These are numerous; but most commonly rich 

 grass on damp autumn mornings gives rise to the distention. 

 Amongst cattle that haye been fed low in the strawyard 

 during the winter, many cases may be observed when these 

 animals are first turned on luxuriant pasture in the spring. 

 Clover appears to be the grass most apt to produce the dis- 

 order, and especially on foggy mornings, or after a shower. 

 Many instances are recorded in proof of the frequent depen- 

 dence of the disease on excessive moisture of grass, but one 

 of the most singular is related by a French veterinarian, 

 Papin, who, in the year 1845, when at Sampigny, on the bor- 

 ders of the Meuse, was called one Sunday afternoon about 

 three o'clock, after a fine and abundant rain had been pouring, 

 and on a field which had, some days previously, been over- 

 flown by the river, to attend to some cows which had scarcely 

 been an hour in the field. The herd observed several of the 

 number to begin to swell, and in the course of a very few 

 minutes five of them were stretched on the ground dead. 

 Other cows were so swollen as scarcely to be able to walk, 

 and some were lying inflated and could not rise. Papin 

 saved all those he found affected by means of the trochar and 

 other remedies. 



Various grasses and potatoes, turnips, and any green food 



