54 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



weighed 1348 grammes (membrane and contents : food, gravel, 

 and pebbles). We have found it of enormous dimensions in a 

 hen ; it measured 40 cm. in circumference and 15 cm. in diameter. 

 It presented a hard consistence to the touch. Anorexia is usually 

 complete. If catarrh of the crop exists at the same time, a fetid 

 liquid runs through the bill. Sometimes the wall of the organ 

 ruptures. If indigestion passes into a chronic state, a long, 

 hanging crop will be formed. 



Treatment. The principal indication in treatment consists in 

 disengorgement of the crop by methodical massage. Ziirn advises 

 hydrochloric acid in doses of one to two drops, in a teaspoon ful of 

 peppermint, or calamus, which is to be administered three or four 

 times a day. Extraction of the alimentary matters is left as a last 

 resource. The operation is performed according to rules laid 

 down by surgery for the performance of œsophagotomy. It 

 should be attempted only on chickens and geese, for it is usually 

 fatal in pigeons. Ziirn ascribes the gravity of the operation in 

 the pigeon to the particular constitution of the lining membrane 

 of the crop. 



ABERRATION OP THE APPETITE. 



1. Pica of the Ox manifested by Licking" : Licking-Disease 



(Lecksucht). 



Among thé numerous aberrations of the taste, this malacia of 

 the ox, as well as that perversion of appetite of the sheep which 

 prompts the animals to eat the wool of their neighbors ( Wolle- 

 fresseri) must take a special place in the treatises on internal 

 pathology, both from a scientific point of view and from their 

 agricultural importance. Their place belongs naturally to this 

 section, on diseases of the digestive apparatus. Perversions of 

 the taste, sometimes met with in other affections, such as hydro- 

 phobia, diabetes insipidus (Leblanc), etc., constitute but an acces- 

 sory symptom of these morbid conditions ; they do not deserve 

 more particular mention than those taking place in our own 

 species during the course of pregnancy, chlorosis, and hysteria. 

 The same is true of depraved appetites (sows eating their progeny, 

 female animals in general swallc^ving the placenta, birds eating 

 their feathers, etc.) ; these G.rc vices^ instinctive acts, or manias, 

 rather than pathological jiibles. 



