Ulceration of the Stomach. 177 



or (in case the ulcer is duodenal) an hour or two after a meal. 

 In this animal it is possible to withdraw liquids from the viscus 

 by the stomach pump, and any hyperacidity or blood may be 

 almost diagnostic. Tenderness to pressure on the epigastrium or 

 hypochondrium is often present, yet the colics of ulceration are 

 often relieved by pressure and friction. Blood is sometimes pres- 

 ent as such in the excrements, but more commonly these are 

 simply blackened by the exuded blood as acted on by the gastric 

 acid and intestinal liquids. The bowels may be alternately con- 

 stipated and relaxed. A gradually increasing feebleness is a 

 characteristic feature and in cattle paraplegia may precede death. 



In the carnivora the symptoms are less obscure. The animal 

 is dull, prostrate, weak, lies on its belly, but rarely long in one 

 place, and when up has arched back, stiff movements, and tucked 

 up abdomen. The epigastrium is painful to touch, which tends 

 to arouse vomiting of food or bloody mucus. As in the horse the 

 rejected matters are very acid. Constipation may alternate with 

 diarrhoea, the faeces being blackened (melsena) or even streaked 

 with blood. The occurrence of suffering after meals, the con- 

 stancy and persistency of the symptoms and the steadily ad- 

 vancing emaciation and weakness are very characteristic. If the 

 tenderness is referable to a given point, it is even more dis- 

 tinctive. 



Lesions. In the horse ulcers and erosions occur in the cardiac 

 sack in connection with oestrus larva and spiroptera which de- 

 stroy and remove the cuticular covering, or with sarcoma or epi- 

 thelioma growing in the gastric walls. In the right sac there 

 may also be round ulcers from the booklets of the oestrus, or ir- 

 regular excavations on the summits of the folds in connection 

 with catarrhal inflammation. Ulcers from auto-digestion are 

 usually in the right sac, in the most dependent part of the viscus, 

 between the folds, and of a more or less circular outline. The 

 raw surface is black, brown, slaty gray or white. The ulcers 

 which result from petechial fever are irregularly notched and 

 marked by a mass of dark blood coagulated in their depth . 



In cattle and dogs the ulcers are most frequent near the pylorus, 



and when of catarrhal origin may be round or irregular, and on 



the summit of the fold, or if peptic, may be round and between 



the folds. In malignant catarrh and rinderpest, they are mostly 



12 



