322 SUBMUCOUS HiEMOllKHAGE IN INTESTINES OF A HORSE. 
some powerful irritant had lieen taken into the stomach, 
where it had remained for a sufficient time to cause irritation 
of isolated portions only of the membrane; escaping from 
the stomach into the first intestine, it appeared to have 
excited powerful contraction of the walls of the canal, and 
thus to have been retained long enough for the full develop¬ 
ment of the irritant action ; the result being extensive sub¬ 
mucous hsemorrhage. From this point the irritant seemed 
to have passed through the whole length of the jejunum and 
ileum until within a short distance of the caecum-caput coli, 
where detention apparently had again occurred with the 
same result as in the duodenum. In the caecum the greatest 
accumulation of ingesta was observed ; and in that part the 
most decided changes of structure had been produced. 
The above hypothesis was tested by microscopic and che¬ 
mical investigation. Minute examination revealed nothing 
beyond the fact of destruction of tissue; the components of 
the mucous membrane were found to be separated and de¬ 
ranged, but no foreign bodies of any kind were detected. 
Professor Tuson undertook the chemical investigation, and 
in his report he states that none of the metallic poisons were 
detected, and further that special search for nitrate of potash, 
which it was suspected might have been administered in large 
quantities, was unsuccessful. 
A most careful inquiry into the circumstances of the 
animaks management did not assist in solving the difficulty; 
the same kind of treatment had been indiscriminately applied 
to all the horses in the establishment; and in no other 
instance were] anys igns of disease observed; no fresh pro- 
vender had been recently introduced, and altogether there 
did not appear to exist any cause for the sudden and fatal 
attack. As a possibility it may be suggested that some 
irritant vegetable matter might have been contained in the 
portion of hay or other provender which fell to the horse^s 
share; but this mode of accounting for the morbid appear¬ 
ances is purely speculative and entirely unsatisfactory. An 
instance of acute intestinal disease of a somewhat similar 
character to the one related, occurred some years ago, and 
the causes of the attack were equally obscure. A bay 
hunter was sent to be fired for hock lameness. The opera¬ 
tion was performed and the subsequent progress of the 
healing process was in every respect satisfactory; the horse 
had so far recovered by the end of a month that it was con¬ 
sidered safe to discharge him from the infirmary. 
On the day previous to his intended removal, the horse 
was left at 12 o^clock in the day perfectly well; at half-past 
