_Causes._ The small size of the stomach in the soliped (26 quarts) and the rapidity with which the alimentary matters normally traverse it, render this organ much less subject to disorder than the complex stomachs of ruminants. In his native state the horse eats at frequent intervals and digestion is constantly going on, so that the viscus is never distended to paresis, nor the secretions, nor vermicular movements retarded by excess of ingesta. But the limited capacity of the viscus becomes in its turn a cause of indigestion whenever the animal is tempted by hunger to hurriedly swallow too great a quantity of food; when the decreased secretions fail to act with sufficient promptness on the contents and leave them to undergo fermentation; when from imperfect mastication and insalivation the food is left in large masses comparatively impermeable to the gastric juice, and accumulates in firmly packed masses; when frosted food (roots, potatoes, apples, turnip tops, etc.), taken in quantity temporarily chills and paralyzes the stomach, and starts a speedy and gaseous fermentation; when the food swallowed is already in process of fermentation (musty or covered by cryptogams) and full of toxic fermentation products which tend to paralyze the stomach. Old animals are especially liable because not only are the teeth and salivary glands ineffective, but the functions of the stomach are habitually below par. The paralysis of the stomach by overloading is seen especially in animals that have been fasting for too great a length of time, and are then furnished with a food, rich, appetizing and abundant. Few horses are proof against the temptation to overeating when they get to the cornbin, the ripening grain or maize, or the field of rich red clover. Some are natural gluttons and on gaining access to grain or green food, will suddenly overload the stomach beyond its power of active contraction on its contents, and without sufficient mastication or insalivation. The food is literally bolted whole, with no admixture of saliva, and no facility for admixture of gastric juice, even if the overloading had left the stomach capable of secreting the latter. Cooked food is especially dangerous by reason of its bulk, the facility with which it is swallowed, and the rapid and excessive dilatation of the stomach caused by it, rather than from lack of trituration and saliva. If fed judiciously, cooked food is more fattening for both horse and ox, any lack of ptyaline being counterbalanced by the presence of amylopsin in the intestines.