25 
CASES OF INDIGESTION, ACCOMPANIED WITH 
COLIC, GASTRO-ENTERITIS, &c. 
By “ Argus.” 
An unusually large number of the horses of one of the 
batteries of Artillery under my charge have suffered of late 
from severe attacks of indigestion, colic, and gastro-enteritis, 
complicated in some instances with hepatic disease. During 
six weeks the number of cases admitted for treatment has 
been from one to three daily; while in the other battery 
only about five horses have been attacked during that time, 
and of these two were verv slight cases. The svstem of 
stable management, feeding, &c., is the same as nearly as 
possible in both batteries ; but the horses of the healthy 
one are under cover in stables, while those of the sickly 
battery are picketed out in the open air, without anything 
to protect them from sun, rain, wind, or night dew. Nearly 
all the cases admitted from the latter were of a severe type. 
Six horses have died, and as the post-mortem appearances 
were peculiar, I send you a brief description of the result of 
my examination of the bodies. 
In all six cases there was inflammation of the villous coat 
of the stomach and the mucous membrane of the small 
intestines; all six stomachs hajl several large irregular ulcers , 
or I should say, ulcers with irregular, jagged edges, along 
the line of junction of the cuticular with the villous lining of 
the stomach. In one stomach there were tw T o or three small 
ulcers upon the villous lining membrane about its centre. 
Three of the stomachs were ruptured, and in each instance 
the rupture had taken place along the line occupied by a 
continuous chain of these ulcers. One such chain ran 
almost from the cardiac to the pyloric orifice, and the 
stomach had there given way. In these cases the contents 
had escaped into the abdominal cavity and produced perito¬ 
nitis. The ulcers, though most conspicuous along the line 
of demarcation, were not confined to it, but were to be seen 
here and there on the cuticular membrane. In two of the 
stomachs there were abscesses (one in each) close to the 
ulcers, having very thick walls, and an exceedingly small 
cavity containing a little pus mixed with black granular 
matter. Each abscess had a small opening inwards into the 
cavity of the stomach, and their situation in both cases was 
on the cuticular membrane. To the edge of the open mouth 
