224 GASTRITIS. 



of the mouth and oesophagus, the date of access of the pain, 

 its intensity, the nature of the substances vomited, the amount 

 and character of the purging, may thus assist our diagnosis. 

 It is equally obvious, that even the more general or consti- 

 tutional symptoms require a careful study ; and can only be 

 regarded as typical under certain limitations. Thus, the 

 prostration which ends life is often produced by a concurrence 

 of at least three causes : (1) the constitutional action of the 

 poison ; (2) the depth or extent of the lesion it has produced ; 

 and (3) the destruction of an organ essential to life three 

 causes, of which idiopathic gastritis, even if acute, would 

 rarely afford more than the last and most chronic." 



The causes of gastritis must be referred to more particu- 

 larly before we can hope to establish any rules for treatment. 



Animal Irritants. A mixture of naphtha and fish oil has 

 been known to produce acute gastritis in cattle, with symp- 

 toms of great pain, foaming at the mouth, &c. Cantharides 

 given incautiously in large doses, and made into a ball, have 

 caused inflammation of the stomach in the horse. Souse, 

 used sometimes as a quack medicine for horses, or given to 

 pigs, may prove poisonous, and kills by inducing inflamma- 

 tion of the stomach and nervous symptoms. Its action ap- 

 pears due to an animal principle, from the meat or fish steeped 

 in brine, as well as to the irritant effects of common salt. 



Mouldy bread, oils of tar and turpentine, savin in large 

 doses, many of the ranunculaceae and of the spurgeworts, 

 creasote and aloes, in over-doses, are amongst the vegetable 

 irritants which have been most frequently productive of 

 gastritis. 



Of the metallic irritants, arsenic, bi-chloride of mercury, 

 calomel, salts of copper, and iron have most frequently 

 induced gastric disease. In the dog, however, violent and 

 persistent irritation of the stomach is caused most frequent! v 



