REVIEW.—CATTLK PATHOLOGY. 
437 
Gastro-enteritis—Inflammation of the Abomasum and of the 
small Intestines. —Inflammation of the fourth stomach or abomasum 
of ruminants, with that of a greater or less portion of the small in¬ 
testines, constitutes the gastro-enteritis of pathologists. This ma¬ 
lady, of which some pathologists have almost denied the existence, 
is not the less real and fatal. Professor Toggia, whose opinion is 
of great authority, says, “ Inflammation of the stomach and of the 
intestines is a disease which attacks all animals, but more espe¬ 
cially the bovine race, and in which the cure of it is exceedingly 
difficult, on account of the peculiar structure of the digestive organs, 
and the quantity and quality of the food which they contain; cir¬ 
cumstances which enfeeble the action of the medicines, the effects 
of which are only slowly sensible.” 
This disease consists of gastritis and enteritis united, as the 
name gastro-enteritis indicates; for the causes which produce gas¬ 
tritis do not always confine their influence to the stomach; they can 
extend their action even to the small intestines, and particularly 
to their gastric and duodenal portion. The same influence may 
be recognized even in the abomasum. The symptoms of the dis¬ 
ease often plainly demonstrate this extension of inflammation from 
the stomach to the intestines, and from the intestines to the sto¬ 
mach. In the latter case, particularly, it commences with diar- 
rhcea, colic, &c. &c.; and in the first, by anxious thirst, headach, 
heat and dryness of skin, yet rarely by vomiting in herbivorous 
ruminants; but if the extension of the inflammation from one of 
these viscera to another takes place in the course of the disease, 
the symptoms are not so acute. 
We have already said, that this disease is one which most fre¬ 
quently attacks the bovine species, and that it is, of all the patho¬ 
logical affections to which they are liable, the most difficult to 
describe or demonstrate in a lucid and positive manner. 
These propositions are the more evidently founded on truth, since 
gastritis is rarely a simple disease. It is a subject which we ap¬ 
proach with considerable caution. It will be very important, as it 
regards the diagnosis, to be enabled to isolate and to recognize 
the diseased state of the abomasum or veritable stomach in the 
ruminants from that of the duodenum; but this distinction is very 
difficult between organs whose functions are so analogous. There 
is the same prostration of animal power—the same vascularity 
from one common origin, and the symptoms of disease most closely 
resembling each other. In truth, many anatomists have thought 
the duodenum entitled to be considered as a second stomach, in 
which the act of chylification is performed. Besides, this intestine 
presents in all animals one especial form, one reflexion, one con¬ 
cavity, and certain curvatures which cannot be confounded with the 
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