REVIEW.—CATTLE PATHOLOGY. 
441 
may cause gastro-enteritis by diminishing the vital energy, and 
causing in all the tissues a remarkable debility, by inducing in 
the digestive organs an extreme want of power, which renders 
the elaboration of the alimentary matters slow and imperfect. These 
maladies uniformly take on a nervous and adynamic character, es¬ 
pecially if this atmospheric constitution continues some time. 
3. Gastro-enteritis is sometimes produced by certain vivid im¬ 
pressions, which modify and alter the circulation and the state of 
the nervous system, and suspend and arrest digestion. Such are 
the fear caused bv a thunder storm ; and the attack, or almost sim- 
ply the sight, of a carnivorous animal, as the wolf: also a surgical 
operation, or any other cause of great pain. Labour beyond the 
strength of the animal, and exacted immediately after feeding or 
rumination or digestion, produce the same effects. The mass of 
ingested food becomes then a foreign body, which fatigues and irri¬ 
tates the stomach and the intestines, and determines all the acci¬ 
dents which constitute indigestion and gastritis. 
4. Blows or violent kicks on the abdomen may also cause in¬ 
flammation of the digestive organs. 
Finally, there are few maladies of other organs of a serious cha¬ 
racter which do not complicate themselves with the consecutive 
s 3 'mptoms of gastritis, by the simple effect of the disturbance which 
then exists in the circulation and in the nervous system. 
One very frequent cause of inflammation of the stomachs and 
intestines of the ox is the privation of green food, and the constant 
and exclusive foraging on hay or straw; for the ox naturally pre¬ 
fers, and, indeed requires, that the latter kind of food should be 
alternated with green or aqueous plants. We may also remark, 
that gastro-enteritis is very frequent at the close of long and rigor-_ 
ous winters, during which the oxen are constantly fed in the stable, 
and on straw of various kinds, perhaps even on chaff, with a very 
little hay. The knowledge of these practical facts becoming more 
extended and more appreciated every day, has determined many 
intelligent agriculturists to cultivate as food for oxen, cabbages, 
turnips, beet-roots, potatoes, field-parsneps, and the early greens of 
the spring, in order that they may be able to supply their cattle 
with green food at all times, and to alternate it with that which 
is dry. By these precautions a great number of diseases are 
avoided. 
It remains for me to say a few words on indigestion and gastritis, 
which are sometimes confounded. Indigestion may be either the 
cause or the effect of gastritis. In hoove, indigestion is essential; 
if the hoove is follow’ed or complicated with inflammation of the 
digestive mucous membranes, indigestion is the cause of gastritis. 
If inflammation of the abomasum is primitive, aiid there is also 
mefeorization of the paunch, or cessation of rumination, gastritis, 
