232 DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



seems to be the result of a chemical agent, rather than from special 

 fungi. 



Symptoms. Young animals are most frequently affected. Tym- 

 panites, diarrhea, dysentery, and hematuria are to be observed. 

 The duration of the disease is very variable.* 



Autopsy. In the acute form we detect a hemorrhagic gastro- 

 enteritis, tumefaction of the liver and kidneys, pulmonary œdema, 

 also exudations into the serous cavities; the urine is dark-red, the 

 spleen is not enlarged. In the chronic course we see cachexia and 

 dropsies, sometimes a parenchymatous nephritis. 



Treatment. Symptomatic. Prophylactic. 



29. Poisoning by Turpentine Plants (JSnzootic Gastro-enteritis ; 

 Disease of the Forest). 



Etiolog-y. This intoxication is produced by the ingestion of 

 young stems of conifera or acrid plants, also through astringent or 

 irritating vegetation (brush, cowberry, myrtle, rush, and alder 

 bush, etc.). It therefore produces an essential form of poisoning 

 from turpentine. 



It is especially observed in the spring. It is the disease described 

 by Chabert (1787) under the name enzootic gastro-enteritis, and 

 which has been ascribed by him to the ingestion of young willow. 

 It was on account of its former frequency, and its connection with 

 various poisons, that it received the improper name of enzootic 

 gastro-enteritis. 



Willows have gradually become scarcer in the woods nowadays, 

 and the disease shows a tendency to disappear. Following Dela- 

 fond's example, we have classified it in the group of gastro-enteritis 

 produced by poisoning. 



Symptoms. Chronic gastro-enteritis, disturbed appetite, colics, 

 constipation, infrequent defecation, dry excrement coated with blood 

 and mucus; more or less intense fever; besides diarrhea, emaciation 

 and weakness. Irritation and inflammation of the kidneys and 

 bladder ; hematuria, ischuria, strangury, and sensitive condition of 

 the region of the loins. As a rule, it lasts several weeks. 



1 Rossignol has proven that cotton-seed cakes, recommended for milch cows, are 

 poisonous for young animals, especially for lambs at the age of three or four months. 

 Symptoms of peritonitis and ascites are seen, the animals weaken rapidly, and die in 

 an advanced state of cachexia. In Egypt it has been observed that these cakes do 

 not produce any poisoning when they are completely decorticated. The toxic princi- 

 ple seems to be located in the brownish pellicle which covers the cotton-seed. — n. d. t. 



