TEXT BOOK OF VETERINARY MEDICINE BY JAMES LAW, F.R.C.V.S. Director of the New York State Veterinary College Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. VOL. II DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS—LIVER—PANCREAS—AND SPLEEN ITHACA PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR 1900 Copyright by JAMES LAW 1900 PRESS OF ANDRUS & CHURCH ITHACA, N. Y. VETERINARY MEDICINE. DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. Second in importance to pulmonary complaints in solipeds; equal in ruminants. Extent of digestive organs and character of food, in carnivora, herbivora, and omnivora. Ruminant’s stomachs. Gastric fermentation. Foreign bodies. Torpor. Unwholesome fodder. In the horse these maladies are only second in importance to those of the respiratory organs, while in ruminants they are equally frequent and important. The varying susceptibility of the digestive organs to disease in different families and the special proclivity of different parts of these organs may be, in great part, explained by the great variation in the food, by the relative extent of the gastro-intestinal surface, and by the amount of work devolving on the respective viscera. In =carnivora= the entire gastro-intestinal surface is little more than half the area of the skin, for their rich animal food does not require a prolonged retention and an elaborate series of intricate processes to insure digestion and absorption. This system of organs is accordingly less liable to disorder in carnivora than in herbivora and omnivora. Add to this that the carnivorous stomach is very capacious relatively to the intestine, that the digestion of the great bulk of the food (nitrogenous elements) is nearly completed in this viscus, and that the contents of this organ are easily and completely discharged by vomiting whenever they prove irritating, and we have ample explanation of the comparative immunity of these animals from digestive disorders. The =herbivora= stand at the opposite extreme, the gastro-intestinal surface being over double the area of the skin in the horse, and nearly three times that extent in the ox. The hard, fibrous and comparatively innutritious vegetable food of these animals necessitates its prolonged retention in the alimentary canal in order to the completion of digestion and the absorption of the nutritive constituents. Hence the great liability of the herbivora to diseases of the digestive organs.