CALCULOUS AND VEGETABLE CONCRETIONS

New Zealand Mail, 29 January 1902, Page 57

CALCULOUS AND VEGETABLE CONCRETIONS

It is well known that the internal * s a re liable to become the seats of calculi of various forms, and also, in the case of the digestive canal, that passes of vegetable matter, intermixed with calcareous particles, may attain a ecnsiderablo bulk without causing any inconvenience until some accidental movement dislodges them and they are jtiffced to a smaller portion of the canal, where they block tho passage, and sometimes cause the death of the animal. -How often the sudden shifting of the concretion from a portion of the large intestine to the small takes place it is impossible to say. The immediate effect will, in most cases, be an attack of , colic which may defy all the ordinary ! means of relief and end fatally, but un- j less a post-mortem examination be made, which is by no means the rule when i there is nothing of an unusual kind in I the attack, the concretion will only be j seen by the knacker, to whom it is not ! an uncommon object, or one likely to attract particular attention. The horse is said to have died of an obstinate attack of colic, and there the matter ends. Having regard to the fact that the uer- . bivorous animal is liable to suffer from concretions due to the deposit of calcareous matter, or to the collection of the fibrous portion of the food round any hard, rough substance, as a small stone, a piece of rusty twisted wire, or a nail with a prominent head—a hobnail for example—it is remarkable that veterinary writers have paid so little attention to the subject. Calculi of various kinds are mentioned as things of occasional occurrence, but so far as wo have been able to ascertain, there is only one veterinary work devoted to the origin, varieties and treatment of those foreign bodies which are found from time to time in the stomachs, intestines, bladders and kidneys of horses and cattle, more rarely in sheep, and not very often in dogs. When these animals do suffer it is usually from the presence of a calculus in the bladder. The author of the solitary manual on this important matter- was W. J. T.Morton, and the date of the ‘issue of the book was 1844. Mr Morton, who was for many years Lecturer on Chemistry and Materia Medica, was, indeed, the first teacher of those subjects ' at tho Royal Veterinary College. In the preface the author remarks that 1 lie term calculus, from Calx (lime), which forms the basis of all the mineral or stone-like concretions, was applied to ail sorts of hard masses which were found m the stomach, intestine, or bladder ; j and it is added that the older veterinary authors contained little information about them of any value, while the ; ancient physicians had devoted a good deal of time to the study of them. He j further states that the term bezaar j stones, which had originally been an- , plied to concretions found in the stom- i aelis of goats inhabiting some of the! mountainous districts of Asia, gradually i extended to include all sort of calculi ! occuring in different animals. Youatt, : in Ins work on the sheep, speaks of bezoars or calculi in the fourth stomach (abomasum) of the sheep; lambs have been found to have several bezoars composed of fibres of wool closely en- i twined round some kind of nucleus, i itiese concretions are usually small, al- ; mond-shaped or round, and are not likey o do much harm. The title bezoar is ro*n the Persian, signifying destroyer or poison. At one time these concretions became fashionable, and were much sought for as amulets or charms, 1 believed to be efficacious not onlv against poisons, but also as a protec'-, ion in time of plagues, and even for counteracting the machinations of evil spirits. Morton’s division of calculi, -till quoted in modern books, includes -tomachical intestinal, urinary, both i, tlie bladder and in the kidneys, and tha S k-i C °i lCretlons which ar e found in the bile ducts and salivary ducts,' which i c [ assecl as occasional calculi. It , w ould be expected that the digestive rarv " oul J harbour most of the ordi-<,oat-li^V^retionf’ and amon S these 1 lie The +e caleul us is the most common. : plaL ofV aS i opted fa y M °rton in given I l ° Usi i al one > “Jung balls,” pearanee m" fr ° m - their eternal aped tW+i Microscopic inspection prov- ; the £ h /*r re chiefly composed of together 3 tef fn ° o ?V» ltrf <* Pressed' accordino- + f + °is m balls var yMg in size i and tl e S °-A he agG of tho concretion 1 GeneraHv^ff 11011 which . ifc occupied. ! tneraily the mass originates in fhe ZgTSL* Of ‘l.O 0«t ha£ ! stem * straw,-spiral vessels from the s”“' ,d ot ‘'.o fibrous gravef US'" 4 ? r S m,d ° fragment of which’win n\ oi ire ’ or otllGr body safelxr i, d acb as a nucleus. It mav eo'creti„ e ,,»'S‘o m 1 ‘ii'S "T 7 "* e ffete matte,- f Pe ii° d a ong with the 1 alto4w eJ rom tllG lntestine s, and when f be-tr ca P° , recognition ; even 1 they reach tho sizn nl 5 o „ n ’ orange thov imnLi A s 0 ot a small , any notice when aS rule attra ct 1 !t is only whL y ihfv m a ahe i P ° f J dung - 1 Position where ! 0 plac ? d rn a paratively ninVcoo 7 L la T re mam com- j of fresh matcrial Jo ' that the addition ! they became 0S on ’ an J a t length 1 tho canal. I n to .f. ass through cretion increases bV • p<^Sltl , on tho con- I “‘or a time “ d

careous material, which gives a hard surface, and causes the ball of felt-like substance to resemble a rough stone the spherical form being preserved bv the regular movements of the intestines Treatment of any kind is perhaps never thought of in connection with the concretions referred to, even'when their presence is made evident by the occasional expulsion of cne or more. The fact of the oat-hair balls existing may be taken for granted when even a single small one is expelled, and no harm would be done in such case-by an occasional aloetio purge, which would, at any rate, check the growth to some extent. It is not known what are the particular conditions which lead t-o the formation of oat-hair concretions m some horses, while the majority remain tree; so that it is not possible to suggest any specific remedies as a means of prevention.—London “Field.”