HOVE. 173 



Lameyran and Fremy* found that in the tympanitis due to 



clover, the gas consisted in 



Sulphuretted hydrogen . . . . . 80 '0 

 Carburetted . . . . 15 



Carbonic acid . . . . 5'0 



100-0 



These proportions are not constant, as Pfluger found four- 

 fifths of the gas in hove to be composed of carbonic oxide. 



Treatment of Tympanitis. When any sign of hove is 

 observed, the animal must be stopped feeding, and indeed 

 appetite is soon lost. In the absence of drugs and instru- 

 ments, Papin recommends a quart of cold water in which a 

 handful of common salt has been dissolved. A method long 

 in practice, but which has attracted special .attention lately, 

 consists in pouring cold water over the animal's body, and 

 the effect of this treatment is most remarkable. Mr Menzies, 

 one of the students in the New Veterinary College, had oc- 

 casion to observe, in the summer of 1860, the beneficial 

 effects of this plan, and although it may not be reliable at all 

 times, it evidently exerts a remarkable influence on the con- 

 dition of the paunch. The modus operandi is easy of ex- 

 planation on physiological principles. The cold water acts 

 through the nervous system, or, in technical language, it 

 induces contraction of the rumen by reflex action, whereby 

 the gas is eructated, and by the motion set up in the stomach, 

 rumination is soon restored, and the animal thus cured. 



The remedies that have for long been regarded as specifics 

 are agents which neutralise or combine with the gases formed. 

 The most valuable of these is liquor ammonise, or the aroma- 

 tic spirit of ammonia. From half an ounce to one ounce of 



* TIKPMANX and GMELIN, Researches on Digestion, Part I. 



