INTESTINAL CALCULI. ENTEROLITHS. BEZOARS. 



Earthy basis, nucleus, stratification, in caecum or colon, multiple, size, 

 number up to 1000. Composition, phosphates of lime, magnesia, and am- 

 monia, silica, mucus, ephithelium, organic matter. Ammonio-magnesian 

 tend to crystalline form, common phosphate of lime to smooth forms. 

 Concretions. Source in food. Ammonia from bacteridian fermentation, action 

 of colloids, varied nuclei, rapid growth. Lesions : catarrh, dilatation, ob- 

 struction, rupture, peritonitis. Symptoms : intermittent colics with ob- 

 struction, tympany, bowel distension, liquid and gaseous, before obstruction. 

 Diagnosis : by hand in rectum, hard obstruction with distension in front. 

 Treatment : purgative dangerous, but exceptionally successful, extraction, 

 oleaginous enemata, laparotomy. 



Horse. Intestinal calculi have an earthy basis (ammonio- 

 magnesian phosphate, or oxalate of lime, and more or less silica) 

 glued together by mucus and having a central nucleus usually of 

 some foreign body, (a particle of sand, pebble, morsel of hair, 

 lead, cloth, nail, coin, blood clot, or inspissated mucus) around 

 which the earthy salts have been deposited layer after layer. 

 They are usually formed in the caecum or double colon and may 

 be multiplied and moulded upon each other, so that they become 

 discoid, angular or otherwise altered from the globular shape. 

 The worn, flattened surface in such cases shows concentric rings 

 representing the layers as deposited in succession. 



The size of the masses may be from a pea or smaller, up to cal- 

 culi of six inches in diameter. 



In number there may be a single calculus or there may be an 

 indefinite quantity. Zundel counted 400 in a single colon, and 

 Gurlt 1,000. 



Composition. They are usually composed of phosphate of lime 

 and of magnesia, of ammonio-magnesian phosphate, with a little 

 silica, mucus, epithelium, and organic matters from the ingesta. 

 Traces of sodium chloride, and iron oxide may also be present. 



The phosphates of lime, magnesia, and of ammonia and mag- 

 nesia usually constitute the main part of the calculus. Fiirsten- 

 berg found specimens in which the ammonio-magnesian phosphate 

 amounted to 72 to 94 per cent. 



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