324 Veterinary Medicine. 



All or nearly all febrile affections, leading as they do to sup- 

 pression of secretions, cause drying and tardy movement of the 

 contents of the bowels. 



The excessive loss of liquid through other channels, — by 

 diuresis, by profuse perspirations, by excessive secretion of milk, 

 or by bleeding — has a similar tendency. 



The suppression of the biliary secretion through liver disease, 

 or obstruction of the bilary duct, withholds from the intestine, 

 the most important of the stimuli to peristalsis, and tends to 

 constipation, unless the resulting irritation should cause ex- 

 cessive secretion. 



The derangement in the circulation in the intestinal walls caused 

 by verminous thrombi in the horse, acts in the same way, the 

 imperfectly nourished walls not only losing the normal power of 

 peristalsis, but sometimes contracting so as to cause a stricture. 

 Parasites encysted in the walls of the bowels, like catarrhal and 

 other inflammations of these parts tend to atony and tardy 

 peristalsis. 



A weakness of the nervous system attendant on old age, or 

 debility, or chronic lead-poisoning often tells with force on the 

 alimentary canal, and the loss of nervous power through disease 

 of the great nerve centers (ganglionic system, brain, spinal cord) 

 impairs the vermicular motion. This is notoriously the case in 

 paraplegia, chronic hydrocephalus, and vertigo. 



Finally among the causes of constipation must be noted the 

 matting of the hairs around the anus (in dogs), and painful affec- 

 tions of the anus, or the abdominal walls, which render efforts at 

 defecation painful and deter the animal from attempting them. 



Lesions. These are as varied as the diseases which give rise to 

 constipation, or result from it. Permanent dilatation or saccula- 

 tion of the intestine, and the structural changes attendant on in- 

 testinal catarrh are the most common local lesions. But proctitis, 

 hemorrhoids and ulcers of the anal follicles are met with in canine 

 patients, and ulcers of the colon in the seat of impaction are 

 common. 



Symptoms. In Solipeds the faeces are passed, at long intervals, 

 in small quantity, usually only a very few balls at a time, firm, 

 dry, moulded smooth and black on the surface, often covered 

 with mucus, or with streaks of blood. They are passed with 



