CHAPTER VIII. 
THE ABDOMEN—ITS ACCIDENTS AND ITS DISEASES. 
ENTERITIS. 
THE nose turned forcibly upward in horses is only expressive of gen- 
eral abdominal disease. The author has witnessed this symptom during 
the earliest stage of enteritis. It is 
frequently exhibited when no disturb- 
ance calling for treatment is known to 
be present, or can be subsequently ob- 
served. Still, because it is sometimes the 
earliest warning of intestinal disorder, 
all horses displaying such a peculiarity 
should receive pointed attention. THE NOSE STRAINED VIOLENTLY UPWARD IS 
Enteritis is a fearful disease, creat- A GENERAL SYMPTOM OF ABDOMINAL IRBI- 
ing the greatest possible agony. Aged 
horses are specially exposed to this scourge, which can rage with un- 
governable fury from the commencement, and consume the life in eight 
hours. Its causes, unfortunately, are in a great measure purely conjec- 
tural; such as drinking cold water, etc. etc. 
These incentives are formally recounted in books; but surely some- 
thing is wanted to complete the catalogue. If all the animals exposed 
to the operation of such provocatives were to have enteritis, two-thirds 
of the horses inhabiting Great Britain would be dead by to-morrow 
morning. The principal thing, therefore, is the predisposition; incline 
toward a particular malady, and any triviality may start up the disease ; 
yet this predisposition we at present are too ignorant to recognize. 
A severe fit of colic, long continued, may end in enteritis. This is 
well known; yet it was not the colic which induced enteritis; but the 
real cause was that which originated the first affection. The predispo- 
sition must be present before the bowels would exhibit that inflammation 
into which the colic merged; the injudicious and cruel treatment most 
horses receive from those to whose service the life is devoted, may prob- 
ably be accused as the root of all these evils; disease is the loudest 
proof that the life is stinted in some essential particular. The same 
food is placed before all horses; one animal will, however, purge upon 
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