INDIGESTION. 
27 
Have similar cases been seen in England—I mean with 
reference to the post-mortem appearances ? Of course I know 
that cases of gastritis occur with symptoms like those I have 
described But are ulcers often found in the lining membrane of 
the stomach ? These horses were in good condition, and 
apparently good health, up to the time of the acute attack. 
In the human subject, when ulceration of the stomach exists, 
the patient at times suffers excruciating pain, and shows by 
his appearance and state of health generally that there is 
some serious internal organic disease. Nothing of this kind 
was observable in any of these horses. I showed one of the 
stomachs to our surgeon, and he agreed with me that the 
ulceration must have been a work of time, that the state of 
things we saw could not have been produced by the acute 
attack, and within a period of twelve or fifteen hours. 
There w T as no reason to suspect that the horses had been 
poisoned, and indeed the symptoms were not those of 
poisoning—certainly not of mineral poisoning : there was no 
purging, no salivation, or discoloration of the mucous mem¬ 
brane of the mouth, fauces, oesophagus, &c. 
Do bots produce ulceration of the stomach? I know that 
in the majority of cases in which they are found they have 
done no harm ; but may they not occasionally produce mis¬ 
chief? I am aware that professional men differ in opinion 
upon this subject. It is, to say the least of it, a strange coin¬ 
cidence that bots were found clinging to the edges of some 
of the ulcers, and to the mouths of both abscesses. There 
were bots in all the stomachs, though in some they were not 
near the ulcerated part. I ought to tell you that the horses 
of this battery had recently come from another station, where 
they were in stables. Here they stand in the open air, 
exposed to the influence of the direct rays of an Indian sun 
(in the month of July) one day, and to torrents of rain the 
next,being alternately reeking wet or roasted by a burning sun. 
I have seen them standing for two or three days continuously 
without ever having a chance of becoming dry even for an 
hour, and then perhaps the weather suddenly clears up and 
out comes the sun more fiercely hot than at any time of the 
year. For days the poor brutes have to stand up to their 
pasterns or fetlocks in wet and mud. The natural effect of 
this must be to render the horses more liable to be attacked 
by disease, and less able to bear . up against it when 
attacked; and yet Government will not sanction the erection 
of any more stables ! 
The general food of horses on this side of India is grain, 
vudely broken between two stones, and then steeped in 
