12 THE VETERINARY DOCTOR. 
barley, or of roots. Boiled linseed, starch-water or barley-water should 
be mixed with the drink to allay pain and irritation. 
CONSTIPATION.—COSTIVENESS. 
This is a stoppage of the bowels, usually affecting the rectum. It is, 
properly speaking, a symptom of some disorder, but as its neglect may 
lead to inflammation of the bowels, it is here separately treated. It is 
caused, in addition to different specific disorders, by old age, inability to 
pass the dung which is in the rectum at birth, indigestible food, such as old, 
rough grass which clogs the rectum, deficiency of water, insufficient exer- 
cise, imperfect mastication, lack of digestive fluids, as the saliva and bile. 
Symptoms.—Impaired appetite, indications of pain in the abdomen, 
straining efforts to empty the bowels, hardened dung, restlessness and 
irritability. 
TrREATMENT.—Nux vomica and sulphur will almost always afford re- 
lief, a dose of the former being given at night and one of the latter in the 
morning. Give regular exercise, boiled food, less oats for a while, and in- 
jections of warm soap-suds. Lack-raking is dangerous. The bowels are 
sometimes obstructed by the lower part of the small intestine slipping 
down into the upper end of the larger one (invagination), and in such a 
case powerful cathartics are extremely dangerous, and indeed should never 
be used. If free injections will not relieve this latter condition, the abdo- 
men may be opened by skillful hands, though it is a hazardous operation. 
Relief is sometimes afforded by jumping from a bank about two feet high. 
Manipulating, by the hand in the rectum, has produced good results. 
INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH.—GASTRITIS. 
This is of two kinds, which, for the sake of convenience, we will call 
spectal and general. The distinction should be carefully made, as the 
treatment of the one differs from that of the other. 
THE SPECIAL FORM. 
This is caused by some vegetable or mineral poison or animal irritant 
taken into the stomach, especially by too much aloes, oil of turpentine, cor- 
rosive sublimate, arsenic, lead, copper, antimony, ammonia, cantharides, 
oxalic, nitric and sulphuric acids. 
Symptoms.—Quick pulse (80 per minute), steady, small, perhaps im- 
‘perceptible; thirst usually great; partial sweats; cold extremities; saliva 
Digitized by Microsoft® 
