CHAP. I.] COSTIVENESS: CAUSES, SYMPTOMS. 197 



COSTIVENESS, OR CONSTIPATION, 



May be considered an original disease, and as one 

 producing as well as being produced by fever. That 

 is to say, hardness of the faeces always attends 

 fever, and is frequently the chief cause of it : like 

 the preceding ailment, we have only to remove the 

 cause, and the effect ceases. See also " Diseases 

 of the Liver," and " Staggers." 



Causes. — Want of the necessary or usual eva- 

 cuation by stool, that is sometimes occasioned by 

 the bowels having lost the power of expelling their 

 contents, as described in the second chapter, page 

 135. Simply speaking, the individual having been 

 long time dosed with purgatives, any neglect hereof 

 causes the dung to harden and obstruct the contrac- 

 tile function of the intestines : heat ensues, and re- 

 absorption takes place, as in cases of retention of 

 urine, until the dung loses all moisture and becomes 

 as hard as baked clay, the lumps that lie in the rec- 

 tum appearing like so many gingerbread nuts. 



The same kind of big fleshy horses as are liable 

 to suppression of urine, are also principal sufferers 

 by constipation or costiveness. Hard food and 

 hard work in warm weather is very productive of 

 this malady, which is often mistaken for inflamma- 

 tion of the bowels ; the means of prevention, there- 

 fore, are obviously the direct contrary mode of feed- 

 ing, and also keeping a good watch on the dunging 

 of each horse in the team. 



Symptoms. — When constipation attends general 



k3 



