ESTEEITIS. 337 



more or less to the end. The body and limbs are cold; the 

 respirations are short and hurried, and the breath is cold ; the 

 head is held low ; the ears are drooping ; the mouth cold and 

 frothy. If the animal be made to .shift his position he staggers 

 from side to side ; the joints suddenly relax ; the muscles become 

 loose and jactinating ; and at last the poor beast falls heavUy, 

 struggles conrulsively for a few moments, and dies. 



Pathognomonio Symptoms. — Pain of an vmceasing cha- 

 racter, referrible to the bowels, and which causes the animal to 

 manifest more or less unceasing violence during the existence oj 

 the disease. The muscular walls of the abdomen are contracted, 

 and the abdomen is tender v/pon pressure. 



Causes. — The causes of Enteritis are numerous. A few of 

 the principal I shall enumerate — working the horse beyond his 

 natural powers during a cold wet day, and afterwards allowing 

 the animal, while thus exhausted, to stand in a cold draught ; 

 suddenly changing the diet, especially from a poor to a rich one : 

 the dislodgement from their old matrix of foreign bodies 

 which may exist within the intestines, such as dust balls, or large 

 calculous concretions ; strangulated hernia, either at the scrotum, 

 the navel, or any other part of the abdomen ; colic producing 

 introsusception, inversion, or involution of the bowels ; the 

 presence of a large number of worms within the intestines ; and 

 I may add, the repeated administration of large doses of opium, 

 either to cure Broken Wind or Chronic Cough, or as an experi- 

 ment to test its effects.* 



Teeatmemt. — I enter now upon the consideration of the 

 most important part of the business, viz. — the treatment of 



I have treated three oases of Enteritis arising from this caiise, one of 

 which the reader will fioad detailed in the Veterinanan for 1849, page 309. 



T 



