OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 91 



bulky food, diseases of the bowels. It is a recognized fact that 

 wholly digestible food produces paralysis of the stomach. For 

 this reason it is not a good plan to feed a horse on flour: the 

 stomach requires the cellulose covering of the grain to irritate 

 its glands. Nature provides this indigestible matter for an ir- 

 ritating factor and consequently the stomach will not work on 

 too concentrated food. If such is given, the germs present in 

 the stomach take advantage of its inertia and set up a fermenta- 

 tion which leads to gastric flatulence and possibly rupture. On 

 this account some object to cooking the food, but this does no 

 harm if plenty of indigestible stuff is given too. Suppose you 

 scald the oats, this makes them easier to digest and also renders 

 part of the cellulose digestible as well ; but you cannot feed the 

 horse the rolled oats which people eat, for it is too concentrated. 



Do not clip the oats for the horse, he needs the hull as an 

 irritant. Clipped oats make work for the veterinarian. 



Barley, wheat or other heavy grain is too concentrated food 

 — it has not enough indigestible cellulose. The horse needs hay. 

 Without it the stomach will not work. 



PHENOMENA OF THE DIGESTIVE DISEASES. 



The phenomena of Digestive Diseases are fewer than those 

 of the respiratory system but these phenomena are well marked, 

 They are as follows : 



1. Flatulence. 



2. Colicky pains. 



3. Turning up of the upper lip — expres- 



sion of nausea. The horse stands 

 still, suddenly stops eating and then 

 turns up his upper lip. The only ex- 

 ception to this being an evidence of 

 nausea is in the case of a stallion 

 teasing a mare. 



4. Constipation — pellets hard, small, 



scanty, or wholly absent. 



5. Diarrhoea. 



