670 
STOMACH STAGGERS IN A MARE. 
friction had been produced by rubbing against it. I do not recol- 
lect having seen bones in the liver on any previous occasion*. 
In the early part of my practice in Warwickshire, while I re- 
sided at Stratford-on-Avon, I had frequent opportunities of see- 
ing and treating horses for stomach staggers, especially during 
the months of July and August. In those cases, the stomach 
was almost always over-distended. I remember one where the 
stomach was empty, but in the csecum there were more than 
12 lbs. of sand. The owner, who kept about thirty farm horses, 
lost five before I could prevail on him to use preventive means. 
The weather was very rainy, and according to a very common, 
but, as far as the health of the animal is concerned, a very bad 
practice, the horses were chained by the leg, to feed on vetches, 
which, from the land being sandy and the weather rainy, were 
very dirty. As soon as I could prevail on the owner to allow it, 
I gave alterative aperient medicines, and directed the horses to be 
turned loose into a grass field, and although the vetches were 
still given as food not a single case occurred afterwards. 
I had several opportunities of treating horses for the same 
complaint, where they were at grass, but the same preventive 
treatment was in those cases effectual. From what I have seen, 
I am of opinion, that in those districts where farm horses are 
kept during summer on vetches, more horses die during July and 
August from stomach staggers and inflammation of the bowels 
than during the other ten months of the year, which might be 
easily prevented by medical treatment, greatly to the advan- 
tage of the owner, and, of course, with some benefit to the medi- 
cal practitioner. During my practice in Bristol, now nineteen 
years, I have had very little to do with staggers. I should think 
that London practitioners and the Veterinary College are simi- 
larly circumstanced as regards staggers. 
# I remember when, many a year ago, I used to be a constant 
attendant at the knacker’s yard, meeting with two instances of 
ossification of the posterior and inferior edge of the liver of the 
horse. I have since found them occurring in several of the species 
of animals which I have had the opportunity of examining 
in the Zoological Gardens. The depositions of bone are some- 
times in the form of incrustations or plates — or of granular 
spots imbedded in the substance of the liver. Sometimes there 
has been a white hard friable tissue, which would crumble under 
the fingers — at other times there were thick cancerous masses, 
with spots of induration. — Y. 
