ACUTE INDIGESTION. 
395 
The causes and symptoms are so well known to all that a 
passing mention of a few of the most important is all that is 
necessary. While the most common cause of fermentation of 
food in the stomach is over-feeding with grain, followed by 
severe exercise, yet some of the most rapidly fatal cases are 
caused by wet bran and green clover, thus proving the necessity 
of admixture of saliva during mastication, and that the first 
process of digestion must take place in the mouth before it can 
be continued in the stomach. 
The fallacy of giving hot bran mashes after parturition has 
been pi oven o\ ei ana over again by fatal attacks of gastric 
flatulency. A very good proof of the non-admixture of saliva 
being a cause of acute indigestion is given in the fact that green 
clover if eaten while wet with dew or frost is more apt to cause 
it than when dry. It also proves that moisture favors fermenta¬ 
tion and putrefaction, and that the horse does best when fed 
upon dry food and allowed to do their own grinding, which they 
were intended by nature to do. The closer we study dame 
iSiatuie, and allow her to dictate the course to be pursued, the 
nearer we will be right. 
Allowing an animal to drink large quantities of water directly 
after meals may cause indigestion by diluting the digestive fluids 
and temporarily diminishing the amount of blood to the stomach 
and bowels. I think, however, that a small amount of water 
assists rather than retards digestion by facilitating absorption of 
that which is already digested. 
In the symptoms only a few things may be noted. In the 
very early stages it might be mistaken for spasmodic colic. By 
placing the ear to the oesophagus at its entrance to the thorax, a 
i umbling or gurgling sound will often be heard, caused by the 
stomach foicing the gases into the oesophagus and being returned 
to the stomach by the resistance of the oesophagus to vomition. 
The animal does not throw himself down so violently as in 
colic, nor are the pains so intermittent. 
In dienching it will be noticed that they offer greater resist¬ 
ance than in colic, holding the lips and tongue more rigid, know- 
