ON THE DISORDERS OP THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 117 



DISEASES OP THE STOMACH : Gastric Catarrh. 

 — The stomach of the dog, as being relatively of more im- 

 portance as a digestive organ than that of the horse, is 

 more liable to disorder. Its mucous lining membrane is 

 extensive and highly organised, and consequently very 

 liable to derangement. Dogs are often fed so erroneously, 

 without regularity, indiscriminately on all sorts of diet, 

 too often and with too much at a time, that we cannot 

 wonder at gastric derangements being common. Parasites 

 and foreign bodies of different kinds are frequent in the 

 stomach, and constitute another source of disease. "We 

 have elsewhere noticed the condition of the stomach known 

 as pyrosis, in which there is indigestion with profuse se- 

 cretion from the gastric glands. We have now to examine 

 a more definite disorder consisting in either congestion 

 or inflammation of the lining mucous membrane. Some 

 fever of a subacute character is present ; there are all the 

 phenomena of indigestion ; the stomach is irritable and 

 rejects promptly both food and medicine, also every now 

 and then its contents are thrown up in the form of acid 

 secretion without any admixture of food; there is pain 

 on pressure over the seat of the stomach in the majority 

 of these cases. Sooner or later the inflammation extends 

 to the lining membrane of the bowels and diarrhoea sets 

 in, and experience has shown that this is a very serious 

 matter and very liable to lead to a fatal termination. 

 Because there is cough present in most of these cases 

 it has been termed Husk, but this name is objectionable 

 since it has been for a long time applied to parasitic 

 bronchitis of calves, and so some confusion might arise 

 from the designation of an altogether distinct pathological 

 state by a name having already a widespread popular 

 use in reference to a particular disease. Treatment pre- 

 sents serious difficulties, the most important being that 

 of retention of food or medicine, both of which must be 

 bland and of small bulk, and therefore frequently adminis- 

 tered. Dilute hydrocyanic acid (gtt. j to iij), chlorodyne, 

 opium, are very valuable here, and the alkaline carbonates 

 counteract the excessive acidity of the gastric secretion. 



