372 
Q. ARCHIE STOCKWELL. 
mer being prevented or neutralized. The good effects so 
often claimed of this combination, are due solely to the me¬ 
chanical action of the antacid in spreading itself over inflamed 
surfaces and thus temporarily relieving irritation. 
When the diarrhceal disturbance can be traced to some 
fault in the economy of the parent, this should be looked after 
and remedied. A saline aperient administered to the dam at 
occasional intervals, is especially valuable when there is a 
tendency to scours of epizootic nature among the flocks and 
herds, or that are due to indigestible curded milk. Indeed, 
when scours appear, it is usually best to remove the suckling 
from the dam, and hand-feed, in order to insure proper food, 
or to remove the mother from the herd or flock into a pad- 
dock to the same end. 
When the dejections of the suckling are freely acid, fatty, 
and manifestly accompanied by tenesmus, it is more than 
probable the primary fault is imperfect or improper pancrea¬ 
tic digestion, when pancreatin is demanded (perhaps in con¬ 
nection with an antacid and alterative) to aid in restoring the 
function. Per contra if the fasces are abundant in curd, pep¬ 
sin is required to be exhibited. Both conditions may, and do, 
obtain together. Again, light colored dejections denote de¬ 
ficiency in biliary products, but if dark and green the re¬ 
verse ; but it must be remembered, as before noted, that lack 
of biliary secretion is too often a concomitant of defective 
pancreatic secretion in nurslings, also that biliary excesses 
are likewise accompanied by pancreatic excesses, when the 
stomach is almost certain to be deficient in the material by 
which its contents are transformed into peptones. 
DIGESTIVE FERMENTS. 
In most forms of diarrhoea the sheet-anchors of treatment 
so to speak, i. e. after the irritating ingesta is gotten rid of 
or immediate inflammation allayed, are the digestive ferments, 
pepsin and pancreatin. These are the only strictly physio¬ 
logical remedies of which we are possessed, and, most unfor¬ 
tunately, are generally overlooked, and as generally, perhaps, 
misunderstood as to'their therapeutical application and value. 
