INFLAMMATION OF INTESTINES. 415 



feeding and watering of horses were carried on under principles 

 far less sound than those now in vogue, enteritis was far more 

 common than at present. It can be readily understood that colic 

 due to indigestion and which is neglected or wrongly treated (as 

 for instance, by too severe purging), may easily run into enteritis ; 

 the change being one of congestion into inflammation. 



SYMPTOMS. — The animal is in a state of extreme restlessness 

 and distress ; he is either pawing, or repeatedly lying down and 

 rising again ; or else he is walking roimd his box, breathing hard, 

 sighing, and perhaps occasionally snorting. At length his respira- 

 tion becomes hurried and oppressed ; his nostrils widely dilated ; 

 his coimtenance painfully anxious and expressive of his sufferings ; 

 his body bathed in sweat at one time, but at another cold, and 

 occasionally seized with tremor ; and his tail erect and quivering. 



The next stage borders on delirium. The eye acquires a wild, 

 haggard, unnatural stare ; the pupil dilates ; his heedless and 

 dreadful throes render approach to him quite perilous, in short, 

 he has become an object not only of compassion but of appre- 

 hension, and seems fast hurrying to his end ; when all at once, in 

 the midst of agonising torments he stands quiet, as though every 

 pain had left him, and he was going to recover. His breathing 

 becomes tranquillised, his pulse sunk beyond all perception ; his 

 body bedewed with a cold, clammy sweat ; he is in a tremor from 

 head to foot, and about the legs and ears has even a death-like 

 feeli The mouth also feelsfcdeadly chill ; the lips drop pendulous ; 

 and the eye seems unconscious of objects. In fine, death and not 

 recovery is at hand. Mortification has seized the inflamed bowel; 

 pain can be no longer felt in that which but a few minutes ago was 

 the seat of exquisite suflEering. 



As infla.mmation of the mucous membranes is characterised by 

 a tendency to spread over the entire mucous surface ; the mucous 

 membranes of the eyelids and nostrils have an abnormally red 

 appearance in this disease. The internal temperature is high, 

 pulse wiry (small and hard) and frequent, the pain continuous, 

 and pressure on the abdomen by the hand causes pain. There is 

 generally more or less distension of the intestines from the evolu- 

 tion of gas, due to fermentation of food. 



The POST-MORTEM APPEARANCES are those of intense in- 

 flammation of the mucous membrane of the intestines to a greater 

 or less extent. Inflammation of the intestine set up by partial or 

 complete twist of the intestine would in all probability be much 

 more local in extent than inflammation which was not due to a 

 mechanical or chemical irritant 



