CHAPTER VI 



GASTRIC IMPACTION 



(GORGED STOMACH, GRASS STAGGERS, 



OR STOMACH STAGGERS) 



Definition. — Under this heading I purpose describing 

 a disorder which is familiarly known to veterinarians as 

 ' stomach staggers '; and throughout this chapter I wish 

 to indicate that I am referring to that state of the stomach 

 in which it is overfilled or gorged with food. No 

 tympany. In other words, it is a condition of affairs in 

 the stomach comparable to, and agreeing in every way 

 with, that state of the intestines known as ' subacute 

 obstruction,' or ' impaction.' 



Williams, in his ' Principles and Practice of Veterinary 

 Medicine,' looks upon this disorder as merely a symptom 

 attending inflammation of the brain and its meninges, 

 and concludes his paragraph on its definition in these 

 words : ' The most common form of congestion of the 

 brain and its membranes, both in the horse and horned 

 cattle, is that called stomach staggers, or grass staggers, 

 a disease which sometimes rages as an enzootic' 



I cannot say that I agree with him. Rather I prefer 

 to turn to an older writer (Percivall), and quote again : 'A 

 stomach surcharged with food, without any accompany- 

 ing tympanic distension, does not appear to occasion any 



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