284 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



Torpidity of fhe action of the bowels is a constitutional 

 peculiarity of some individuals, and it may arise as a 

 result of disease of other parts of the body. More or 

 less marked torpidity is found in fever. This must be dis- 

 tinguished from Constipation, in which there is a cessation 

 of passage of faeces on account of some impediment, me- 

 chanical or organic. Thus, it is a symptom of strictures 

 and impactions of the stomach or intestines, may be due 

 to tumours, either within, in the walls of, or pressing on 

 the bowels ; it is a symptom of volvulus, intussusception, 

 and intestinal calculi, and concretions of various kinds, 

 such as faecal accumulations. The cause should be deter- 

 mined as exactly as possible, aud counteracted when this 

 is possible. Faecal concretions are very rare in the ox. 

 When constipation depends upon organic disease it is liable 

 to recur, unless the animal be fed on very soft food and an 

 occasional laxative given. Relief of constipation is indi- 

 cated by the passage of hard faecal masses with a con- 

 siderable coating of mucus, sometimes also intermingled 

 with a small quantity of blood. If unrelieved, a faecal 

 accumulation may give rise to gangrene. The following 

 note, after Youatt, seems to show that we are, perhaps, not 

 often suflSciently bold in treatment of obscure intestinal 

 affections of the ox : — ^' Dr. Cheselden relates a very ex- 

 traordinary case of healing power, and does not forbid 

 hope, although the intestines may have been injured to a 

 very great extent. ' An ox,' he says, ^ was suffering under 

 constipation of the bowels. Thomas Brayer, a doctor for 

 cattle opened the ox in the flank, and took out a great part of 

 his bowels, upon searching which he found that there was a 

 perfect stoppage in the guts, and that the gut was, about the 

 stoppage, putrefied for about three yards; whereupon he 

 cut off so much of the gut as was putrefied, and took it 

 quite away, and then drew the ends of the guts which 

 remained sound, after what was cut off, together upon 

 a hollow keck, which was about three or four inches long, 

 and sewed the said ends of the guts together upon the said 

 keck, leaving the keck within the guts, and then sewed up 

 the hole cut in the hide upon the flank of the said ox. 



