A HORSE WITH CHRONIC GASTRITIS INDULGING ITS MORBID APPETITE.
The slightest exertion produces a thick and copious sweat. The symptom, however, which is most remarkable, when the cleanly habits natural to the animal are considered, is the peculiarity of the appetite. The rack and manger are generally neglected; but every unnatural or offensive substance, within reach of the extended jaws, is devoured with avidity. Woodwork has largely disappeared. Soil and stones have been removed from the stomachs of creatures destroyed for incurable disease. Either of the substances last named, however, are usually spared, so long as a morsel of plaster, a portion of mortar or of brick, is within reach. Animals, when in the field, will leave the grass and enter any ditch to gnaw at bricks and mortar. When confined, they will, under the morbid influence of this affection, employ themselves for hours searching for a morsel of either among the straw.
The old custom of purging and bleeding for a case of this kind is positively injurious. It is better to administer bitters, alkalies, and sedatives;—the first, to amend the appetite; the second, to correct the acidity of the morbid secretion; the third, to destroy the uneasy sensation which provokes too many of the symptoms.
| Powdered nux vomica | One scruple. |
| Carbonate of potash | One drachm. |
| Extract of belladonna | Half a drachm. |
| Extract of gentian and powdered quassia | Of each a sufficiency. |
Or,
| Strychnia | Half a grain. |
| Bicarbonate of ammonia | One drachm. |
| Extract of belladonna | Half a drachm. |
| Sulphate of zinc | Half a drachm. |
| Extract of gentian and powdered quassia Give, morning and night. | Of each a sufficiency. |
One of the above balls may be given daily. When their benefits seem exhausted, give, instead of a ball, half an ounce each of liquor arsenicalis, the same of tincture of ipecacuanha, with one ounce of muriated tincture of iron and of laudanum, in a pint of water. Also, damp the food and sprinkle magnesia freely upon it. Then, as the strength improves, introduce sulphuric ether, one ounce; water, one pint, daily and ultimately change this last for a quart of good ale or stout.
Before concluding, there remains to point out the cause of this lamentable affection. Ignorance views each part of the body as distinct; it cannot see the various components are connected, and, in the mass, constitute one whole. Thus, medicine appears to the uninformed as thrown away, when internally administered for a skin disease. So it may to such persons appear strange how the air inhaled can disorder the digestion! To those better informed, however, it will only seem a natural consequence that impure atmosphere, inspired day and night, should impair the body's health. It will, with such people, be recognized as likely that the disorder should break forth when the frame is on the eve of being matured. The cause of indigestion is close and unhealthy stables. What loss will instruct mankind, that they cannot enslave life and treat it according to their convenience? Life has its natural rights: these cannot be disregarded—the requirements of breathing creatures must be fulfilled. The ability of the enslaver to use according to his pleasure, must not be selfishly regarded; else nature is outraged, and in its deprivation, pride learns the impossibility of forcing all things to conform with its inclinations.