26 
INDIGESTION. 
of each of these abscesses a couple of bots were attached; 
and to the ragged edges of some (not all) of the ulcers, in 
like manner, one, two, or three bots were found clinging. 
Five of the six stomachs were immensely distended with 
compact grass and grain—so much so that the medicine 
administered by the mouth previous to death was found to 
have been absorbed by the hard dry mass in immediate con¬ 
tact with the cardiac orifice, and not to have got beyond 
about the first eighth of the contents of the stomach. Even 
those stomachs which were ruptured were found in this dis¬ 
tended state, although some of their contents had escaped. 
The sixth stomach was also of large size, but filled with 
liquid containing undigested grain and grass. In four of the 
six cases there was disease of the liver (chronic), that organ 
being much diminished in size, of a light-clay colour, and 
remarkably soft and easily broken down. 
The symptoms in all these cases were almost exactly the 
same. On first admission, dulness, the head hanging low, 
staggering gait, small and almost imperceptible pulse, per¬ 
spiration generally over the whole body, the pupils of the eyes 
distended, and the horse apparently unconscious of all 
surrounding objects. When the head was raised to give a 
draught the horse became giddy and staggered; sometimes 
he fell if the head were repeatedly raised, and if the attempts 
to administer the medicine were persevered in the animal 
became greatly distressed, his breathing alarmingly acce¬ 
lerated, and his movements involuntary and unsteady, even 
to the extent of falling down head foremost and rolling over. 
After a couple of hours the patients became covered with a 
cold perspiration, the respiration quick and difficult, and the 
countenance expressive of the most intense suffering. The 
horse would walk round his box as if trying to escape from 
himself, alternately running his nose or tail into one of the 
corners ; then turn round, paw the ground, and throw him¬ 
self down with a groan. In three cases there was vomiting 
through the nostrils, the smell arising from which compelled 
those in the box to leave it for a minute or two. One horse 
was so violent that it was impossible to go near him for 
some time, until, in fact, he had become exhausted by the 
paroxysm of pain. In all those cases that proved fatal the 
brain became affected soon after admission. All treatment 
failed to produce any change for the better at any period of 
the disease, although everything was tried that under such 
circumstances is generally found to afford relief. The horses 
rapidly got worse, and died in from five to twenty-five hours 
from their being first attacked. 
