ACUTE GASTRO-INTESTINAL CATARRH OF THE OX. 



91 



€ases of the digestive canal in the ox is very incomplete. The 

 paucity of our knowledge in this direction is of great disadvantage 

 both to the practitioner and to the farmer, but especially to the 

 former, for he is obliged to call many different pathological condi- 

 tions by the common name of indigestion. We must therefore 

 acknowledge the credit that is due to the veterinarians who, by 

 endeavoring to define the symptoms of each, have tried to clear up 

 the chaotic pathology of these affections.* 



We must remark that the diagnosis of gastric affections is still 

 more difficult in ruminants than in the horse and dog: this differ- 

 ence is easily understood if we think of the anatomical disposition 

 and of the complex physiological actions of the stomach in rumi- 

 nants, and also of the morbid sympathies of its several compart- 

 ments, and consequently of the possibility of the simultaneous 

 existence of different affections. All the circumstances combine in 

 obscuring the clinical study of gastric diseases ; the present condi- 

 tion of science, therefore, does not allow us to give an exact and 

 detailed description. Moreover, it is doubtful if the question of 

 diagnosis of these affections will make much progress in the future. 

 Investigators find themselves halted by the similarity of symptoms, 

 which, in most cases, do not offer anything characteristic. 



We have accordingly adopted an essentially practical classifica- 

 tion. We shall first study acute gastro-intestinal catarrh, then this 

 affection in its chronic form ; afterward taking up acute meteorism, 

 chronic meteorism, overloading of the belly, catarrh of the aboma- 

 sum, gastro intestinal catarrh of young animals, and finally the 

 digestive troubles produced by the presence of foreign bodies in the 

 first three gastric compartments. 



Physiological considerations concerning' the digestive dis- 

 eases of ruminants. 1. The first three compartments of the 

 stomach of ruminants do not secrete any digestive fluid ; they rather 

 constitute a receptacle, in which the alimentary matters undergo 

 physical modifications which render them more susceptible to the 

 chemical phenomena of digestion in the true stomach. When the 

 mechanical work is hindered on account of paresis of their walls, 

 the digestion not only suffers, but the stomach and intestine become 

 the seat of a certain degree of inflammation. 



2. The movements of the rumen have a considerable influence 



1 Harms: Deutsche Zeitschr. f. Thiermed., 1876. 



