206 DIAKKHCEA. 



Cattle are very subject to diarrhoea when placed on young 

 soft pastures, and with sudden changes of diet. It is a sym- 

 tom in epizootic diseases, such as pleuro-pneumonia and con- 

 tagious typhoid, whereas it is seen in young animals of all 

 kinds, when a dyspeptic state is induced from an artificial 

 system of rearing, and the milk, unacted on by the gastric 

 juice, passes into the intestine, and produces an active peris- 

 taltic movement and its expulsion, 



Symptoms. Frequent liquid evacuations, with discharge 

 of flatus, considerable straining, scanty urinary secretion, im- 

 paired appetite, and occasional appearance of colicky sym- 

 toms. When an irritant is operating locally, the material 

 which produces the disorder is usually to be detected in the 

 excrement. If the stomach is inactive, alimentary matters, such 

 as milk, pass unchanged: hence the name 'white scour' for 

 diarrhoea in calves and lambs. There is always great fcetor, 

 and a black condition of the faeces in blood diseases which 

 give rise to diarrhoea. Sometimes preparations of iron, given 

 with other astringents, occasion a peculiar form of diarr- 

 hoea, especially if a purgative is incautiously given to the 

 animal receiving ferruginous tonics. The faeces are per- 

 fectly black, like ink, and very fetid. Such attacks are some- 

 times not easily checked. Should the pancreas not act, fatty 

 matters are found in excess in the excrement. 



Post-mortem appearances. In the diarrhoea of young 

 animals which proves so destructive amongst calves, and has 

 been improperly designated gastro-enteritis and dysentery, 

 there is no appearance of inflammation, and in the many 

 cases I have examined, there were usually a peculiar pallor or 

 indications of checked function in the fourth stomach and 

 intestines. It is the mass of half-curdled milk in these 

 organs, and the emaciated appearance of the tissues, which 

 may be regarded as characteristic of diarrhoea in suck- 



