UI.CERATION OF THE STOMACH. 



■ Causes : peptic digestion, paresis, caustics, irritants, acids, alkalies, salts, 

 ■mechanical irritants, hot food, parasites, thrombosis, embolism, specific 

 disease poisons, aneurism, tumors, infective . growths, nervous disorder, de- 

 bility, toxins of diphtheria, staphylococcus, etc. Symptoms : slight colics, 

 tympany, emaciation, vomiting blood, tender epigastrium, dark or bloody 

 stools, irregular bowels ; in carnivora abdominal decubitus, arched back, 

 bloody, mucous, acid vomit, colics after meals. Lesions : in horse erosions, 

 ailcers, parasites, neoplasms, discolorations, extravasations ; in cattle and 

 dogs on folds, nature of ulcer. Treatment : restricted, digestible diet, 

 lavage, anodynes, bismuth, antacids, antiseptics, salol, naphthol, chloral, 

 pure water. 



Causes. Gastric ulcers may arise from quite a variety of 

 causes which determine necrotic conditions of the mucosa and 

 the gradual invasion of the resulting lesion by destructive mi- 

 crobes. One of the simplest factors is the peptic juice, the 

 .stomach, being struck with paresis (in inflammation, fever, ner- 

 vous disorder), while containing a quantity of its secretion, un- 

 dergoes an autodigestion which affects particularly the lowest 

 (pyloric) portion, toward which the liquid gravitates, and the 

 free edges of the folds which are the most exposed to its action. 



The swallowing of irritant and caustic agents (the mineral 

 acids or alkalies, mercuric chloride, tartar emetic, antimony 

 chloride, Paris green, arsenious acid, etc. ) by corroding or causing 

 destructive inflammation of the exposed mucous membrane may 

 similarly operate. This is especially the case with monogastric 

 animals, (horse, pig, dog, cat), as in the ruminants such agents 

 tend to be diluted in the first three stomachs and rendered more 

 harmless. 



Mechanical irritants may cause the lesion and infection atrium ' 

 in any of the domestic animals, pins, needles, nails, pieces of 

 wire and other sharp pointed bodies being swallowed by horse 

 and ox, and small stones, pieces of bone, and all sorts of irritant 

 objects picked up by the puppy or rabid dog. 



Cooked food swallowed hurriedly at too high a temperature is 

 especially liable to start necrotic changes in the single stomach of 

 horse, pig or dog, the ruminant being in a measure protected by 

 the food passing first into the rumen. 

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