REVIEW.—CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 
303 
perly speaking, be any indigestion, inasmuch as rumination is only 
the commencement of digestion, and a physiological phenomenon 
merely preparatory to the function of the abomasum. 
Tlie Diagnosis of meteorization of the paunch is sufficiently plain. 
Sudden and spontaneous tympanitis is its essential symptom. It 
may occur without any indication, whatever may be the cause. 
The meteorization which is complicated with gastritis and gastro¬ 
enteritis is not manifested until after tlie development of the primi¬ 
tive disease. 
Prognosis .—Every sudden and considerable meteorization is a 
serious affair, and especially when the difficulty of breathing and 
the anxiety of countenance and manner are extreme. Suffocation 
or cerebral congestion are then imminent. The prognosis is un¬ 
favourable in these cases, as it is also in meteorization produced 
by overloading of the paunch. The inertia of the membranes of 
the rumen is sometimes in these cases beyond the reach of art, es¬ 
pecially in animals out of condition, or enfeebled by insufficient 
food or by age. It then takes, in despite of the operation of ex¬ 
traction of the food, a chronic character, and there frequently super¬ 
venes a fatal diarrhoea, or the operation of gastrotomia is followed 
by fatal peritonis. The meteorization produced by bran in a 
state of fermentation, or by provender that is filthy or decayed, 
by potatoes that have germinated, or by the weeds in wheat mingled 
with poppies, is in the highest degree serious, because these sub¬ 
stances, beside the properties refractory to the action of the paunch 
with which they are surcharged, and the fermentation which their 
accidental continuance in the rumen causes to be developed, fur¬ 
nish also other gases, which have narcotic properties, and pro¬ 
duce fatal effects. One of my colleagues tells me, that in this 
tympanitis the disengaged gases have sometimes a septic property, 
which empoisons the blood, since in some cases he has observed 
tumours resembling those which are manifested in the putrid varie¬ 
ties of fever. 
Hoove, when existing to a very great degree, may produce abor¬ 
tion by the compression which the paunch must exercise on the 
uterus, a compression which interrupts the placental circulation, 
produces detachment of that foetal membrane, and death to the foetus, 
and all the accidents which accompany premature expulsion. 
Chabert had asserted, that the gas extricated in this disease is 
the carbonic acid. More analyses have been effected since his 
time, M. Plucher de Soleur received in October 1825, from M. 
Luthi, M.V. a vessel filled with gas collected from a cow exceed¬ 
ingly meteorized, and on which he had operated. It had a strong 
and fadid odour, which was observed as it escaped from the punc¬ 
ture. After having been passed through several glasses or reci- 
