CHAP. II.] INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH. 135 



inflammation takes place, and communicates itself 

 in four or five days to the whole of that surface, 

 taking its course downwards or upwards, according 

 to the orifice that may be most affected ; the first 

 communicating all the way down through the intes- 

 tines, blocking up the influx of gall (as described 

 at section 48.), and causing yellowness of the eyes, 

 until its appearance at the anus ; or, in the other 

 case, it ascends up to the nostrils, making its ap- 

 pearance first about the head, and communicates 

 either way to the skin and its coat. 



47. Of the intestines, it is important to keep in 

 mind, that, notwithstanding the appearance of great 

 tenacity they assume, they are, nevertheless, ex- 

 tremely irritable, being composed of two coats of 

 fine muscular fibres that cross each other, the one 

 circularly, the other lengthwise ; and having a lining 

 which secretes a fluid for its protection, they ad- 

 mit in their intervals an innumerable quantity of 

 absorbent vessels, that are constantly sucking up 

 the finer particles of their contents. This sort of 

 conformation renders the intestinal canal obnoxious 

 to repeated strong drastic purges, particularly those 

 which receive the name of horse aloes, that heat and 

 irritate the parts by their coarseness. Inflammation 

 is most likely to succeed such irritation, in summer- 

 time especially, and the animal is usually destroyed 

 by the pretended remedies of the farriers ; or, being 

 pressed forward in his work during the attack, goes 

 until he drops down and dies. At the fundament 

 may be seen the earliest indication of this species of 



