no Veterinary Medicine. 



rapid march with full stomachs are greatly exposed to both 

 tympany and impaction. 



In speaking of dry, fibrous food and lack of water as factors, 

 we must avoid the error of supposing that succulent or aqueous 

 food is a sure preventive. In a catarrhal condition of the rumen 

 or in a state of debility, impaction may readily occur from the 

 excessive ingestion of luscious grass, wheat bran, potatoes, 

 apples, turnips, beets, or cabbage. 



Finally defects in the anterior part of the alimentary tract may 

 tend to impaction. Salivary fistula or calculus cutting off the 

 normal supply of liquid necessary for rumination, tends to re- 

 tention and engorgement. Diseased teeth and jaws interfering 

 with both the primary and secondary mastication has the same 

 vicious tendency. Old cows, oxen and sheep in which the molar 

 teeth are largely worn out, suffer in the same way, especially 

 when put up to fatten or otherwise heavily fed. In this case 

 there is the gastric debility of old age as an additional inimical 

 feature. 



Symptoms. These vary with the quantity and kind of ingesta 

 also to some extent with the previous condition of the rumen, 

 sound or diseased. They usually set in more slowly than in 

 tympany. On the whole the disease appears to be more common 

 in the stable than at pasture. The animal neither feeds nor ru- 

 minates, stands back from the manger, becomes dull, with anxious 

 expression of the face, arching of the back and occasional moan- 

 ing especially if made to move. The abdomen is distended but 

 especially on the left side, which however hangs more downward 

 and outward and tends less to rise above the level of the hip bone 

 than in tympany. If it does rise above the ilium this is due to 

 gas and it is then elastic, resilient and resonant on percussion at 

 that point. The great mass, and usually the whole of the paunch 

 is non-resonant when percussed, retains the imprint of the fingers 

 when pressed, and gives the sensation of a mass of dough. The 

 hand applied on the region of the paunch fails to detect the in- 

 dication of movements which characterize the healthy organ. 

 The ear applied misses the normal friction sound, but detects a 

 crepitant sound due to the evolution of bubbles of gas from the 

 fermenting mass. This is especially loud if the impaction is one 

 of green food or potatoes, even though the gas remains as bub- 



