518 LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
the teeth so essential to healthy digestion. If allowed, he will 
sometimes overgorge himself with an indigestible mass to such an 
extent as to bring about the partial or entire suspension of the 
movement and secreting power of the stomach, and thus put his life 
in serious danger from fermentation and rupture. Wheat or green 
food is most likely to produce this effect; and especially so if he be 
put to severe w r ork immediately or very soon after feeding. New oats 
or new hay will also produce it ; also debility of the digestive organs, 
or an unhealthy state of the general system, or it may be caused by 
excessive fatigue, producing general weakness ; cold water given in 
too great abundance immediately after feeding; by washing the in- 
gesta from the stomach before it has properly chymified, will cause it ; 
allowing the body to cool too quickly when warm ; bad treatment, 
and so will irregularity of work, or nervous excitement of any kind. 
The symptoms of the acute form of this disease will depend 
altogether upon its particular seat. If the horse has overloaded his 
stomach he will have excessive nausea, expressed by the drooping 
head, turning up the nose, attempts to vomit, eructation, a slow, 
weak pulse, and great prostration and heaviness, distension of the ab- 
domen, and colicky pains ; there may or may not be sympathetic 
affections of the brain, producing stupor and staggers. There are 
many cases where this symptom is not present, though the stomach 
is distended to the utmost; the horse is frequently attacked in the 
midst of his work, becomes uneasy, and will be down, and at times 
at full length for a considerable period, the extremities are cold, 
the visible mucous membranes are not much injected, the bowels 
are constipated, the mouth dry and clammy, and the horse has a 
peculiar haggard countenance, which becomes more and more 
ghastly as the disease advances ; should ti e stomach burst he 
becomes pulseless, cold sweats break over him, the membranes are 
pale as in death, he makes frequent attempts to urinate, and to 
force anything from the rectum, he reels, staggers, and very soon 
falls headlong into a corner and dies. 
Although cases of acute indigestion, such as I have just described, 
where the disease is altogether confined to the stomach are by no 
means rare, still the true seat of the great bulk of our acute cases 
will be found in the caecum and colon, that mighty receptacle, 
which might indeed be called the horse’s second stomach, for it is 
indisputable that large masses of nearly indigestible matter lodge 
there, no doubt for the wise purpose of extricating from it the last 
particles of its nutritive properties, and it is natural to expect that 
where there is the greatest accumulation of aliment, there should be 
the most frequent derangement of function, and so we find it, for 
in large practice the treatment of this form of indigestion becomes 
almost a daily occurrence. The large masses so frequently accumu- 
lated in this part of the bowels, in the heavier class of animals 
particularly, becomes a frequent source of irritation, producing 
acute enteritis, but far more frequently that form of indigestion, 
so well known to every amateur in veterinary science, under the 
designation of flatulent colic. The causes of this form of indiges- 
