ABERRATION OF THE APPETITE. 



59 



the first stage being apyretic, the second febrile. The initial stage 

 is always apyretic. 



The initial symptoms are a certain degree of inappétence, the 

 long duration of the meal, the slowness and infreqiiency of the act 

 of rumination. Soon the appetite becomes capricious, and the 

 characteristic symptom of the disease — licking — appears. 



The animals will devour part of their litter without being driven 

 to it by hunger ; in freedom and on pastures they select aqueous 

 plants, those growing in places where manure has been deposited, 

 also young sprouts of ligneous plants. In the stable they approach 

 their grooms in order to lick their clothes.^ 



These depraved appetites observed iu subjects presenting the 

 appearances of health, exist in all species, even among men 

 (Lasegne^). 



These symptoms become worse from day to day ; the patients 

 at length are licking continually, day and night, the walls, 

 woodwork and partitions, etc., and biting all objects within their 

 reach, even the chains used to tie them (Pfeifer). They are more 

 excitable and fretful ; their expression is anxious, sharp, and rest- 

 less ; hyperesthesia of the lumbo-sacral region is also often observed 

 {Lemke). 



These symptoms may persist for a shorter or longer period (two 

 to four months) with variations in intensity ; the weight is not 

 materially reduced ; milk secretion is maintained. The animals 

 will stop licking when threatened by the voice (Lemkc). The 

 disease becomes aggravated, the appetite for matters foreign to the 

 alimentation makes itself felt more and more ; the patients swallow 

 Ihese substances, and it is almost impossible to prevent them from 

 doing so, as they will refuse their food. They devour the litter 

 soiled with excrements and urine, rotten wood, old rags, leather, 

 excrements, etc. ; they swallow earth, clay, sand, and all calcareous 



1 This symptom must not be mistaken for curiosity, or the attention observed among 

 certain bovine animals when strange people enter the stable, nor with the tendency 

 of licking clothing, which is seen in many healthy animals kept in stables constantly. 

 We must also point out that certain animals, otherwise perfectly healthy, seek to 

 reach and swallow all kinds of objects. Marheincke (Magazin von Gurlt und Hert- 

 wig, 1836) describes a striking example of it. A cow, which had never been sick 

 and was a great eater, swallowed successively a pair of cotton stockings, some bread 

 and cheese wrapped in a piece of muslin, a cloth waistcoat with metal buttons, a 

 child's merino dress, and a servant's cotton jacket. See Gurlt, Pathol. Anat. — n. d. a. 



2 Lasègne (Etudes Médicales, 1884) reports a remarkable instance of a well-edu- 

 xîated young girl, who devoured nearly half of her drawing-teacher's coat 1 " — n. d. t. 



