508 THE HORSE. 
rice. A perseverance in these remedies will almost invariably produce 
the desired effect, if they have not been deferred until the horse is very 
much exhausted, when a pint of port wine may be substituted for the 
laudanum with advantage. 
In Drarrua@a resulting from cold, or over-exertion, the treatment 
should be exactly like that prescribed for superpurgation, but it will 
sometimes be necessary to give chalk in addition to the remedies there 
alluded to. The rice or flour-milk may be administered as food, and the 
following drench given by itself every time there is a discharge of liquid 
feeces :— 
Makeiof Powdered (Opium. % 4°. 2))e)s) sasee)n eledrachma, 
Tineturelof Catechul san 1c) e.ya.eecOUnCeS 
Chalk Mixture aw Ca Bd! loge 1 pint. 
Mix and give as a drench. 
During the action of these remedies the body must be kept warm by 
proper clothing, and the legs should be encased in flannel bandages, pre- 
viously made hot at the fire, and renewed as they become cold. 
IN DYSENTERY (or molten grease) it is often necessary to take a little 
blood away, if there is evidence of great inflammation in the amount of 
mucus surrounding the feces, and when aperient medicine does not at 
once put a stop to the cause of irritation by bringing the lumps away 
from the cells of the colon. Back-raking, and injections of two ounces of 
laudanum and a pint of castor oil with gruel, should be adopted in the first 
instance, but they will seldom be fully efficient without the aid of linseed 
oil given by the mouth. A pint of this, with half a pint of good castor 
oil, will generally produce a copious discharge of lumps, and then the 
irritation ceases without requiring any further interference. 
Whenever there is diarrhcea or dysentery present to any extent, rice- 
water should be the sole drink. 
STRANGULATION AND RUPTURE. 
MECHANICAL VIOLENCE is done to the stomach and bowels in various ways, 
but in every case the symptoms will be those of severe inflammation of the 
serous coat, speedily followed by death, if not relieved when relief is 
possible. Sometimes the stomach is ruptured from over-distension—at 
others the small intestines have been known to share the same fate, but 
the majority of cases are due to strangulation of a particular portion of 
the bowels, by being tied or pressed upon by some surrounding band. 
This may happen either from a loop of bowel being forced through an 
opening in the mesentery or mesocolon, or from a band of organised 
lymph, the result of previous inflammation—or from one portion of the 
bowels forcing itself into another, like the inverted finger of a glove, and 
the included portion being firmly contracted upon by the exterior bowel, 
so as to produce dangerous pressure (intussusception), or, lastly, from a 
portion or knuckle of intestine forcing its way through an opening in the 
walls of the abdomen, and then called hernia or rupture, which being 
pressed upon by the edges of the opening becomes strangulated, and if 
not relieved inflames, and then mortifies. None of these cases are 
amenable to treatment (and indeed they cannot often be discovered with 
certainty during life, the symptoms resembling those of enteritis), except 
strangulated hernia, which should be reduced either by the pressure of 
the hands, or by the aid of an operation with the knife—which will be 
described under the chapter which treats of the several operations. 
