Diseases of the Digestive System. 189 
a salutary process, intended as Nature’s safeguard in the 
many dangers to which, as the scavenger of the earth, he 
is necessarily exposed. Thus irritant food is speedily 
ejected ; and the organ also becomes specially excited 
under the stimulus of numerous ailments, when enforced 
discharge of the contents has the effect of a powerful 
sedative on the system. This special sensitiveness has 
led to egregious abuse in the employment of emetics for 
almost every disease, irrespective of the torture to which 
the creature is subjected. ‘Their adoption should be 
regulated by great care and judgment, as they are likely 
to produce serious gastric disorder with Continuous 
Vomition, a condition usually indicative of acute 
irritation when it arises independently of medicinal 
agents. 
Gastritic Catarrh, or Catarrh of the Stomach, vulgarly 
called “husk,” consists of a congested and irritative, and 
more or less inflamed condition of the extensive mucous 
lining, arising from injudicicus as well as erroneous 
feeding, the presence of parasites or indigestible foreign 
~ bodies. 
The Sympioms comprise some amount of fever, 
irritability of the stomach, with frequent vomition, the 
fluid being of an acid character, and contains no food. 
Pressure over the region of the-stomach causes severe 
pain in most cases. The animal is dull, dispirited, and 
tormented by a constant cough. By extension of the 
disease to the bowels, a fatal diarrhcea sets in, and the 
termination is usually fatal. 
Treatment.—This is not always successful, the reten- 
tion of food or medicine by the stomach being a matter 
of extreme difficulty. Small quantities only of anything 
should be given, and at frequent intervals. The best 
remedies appear to be prussic acid, chlorodyne, or opium, 
alternated with the carbonates of potash or soda. The 
injection of remedies beneath the skin offers a suitable 
method of treatment, thus avoiding the dilution as well as 
waste by the constant vomition. Some practitioners find 
great benefit from the administration of a pill containing 
one to three grains of opium, and sulphate of iron five to 
