DISEASES OF HORSES. 381 



heated with exercise, and has been during some hours without 

 food, and in this state of exhaustion is suffered to drink freely 

 of cold water, or is drenched with rain, or have his legs and 

 belly washed with cold water, an attack of inflammation of 

 the bowels will often follow. An overfed horse, subjected to 

 M-vrre and long-continued exertion, if his lungs were previ- 

 ously weak, will probably be attacked by inflammation of 

 (hem ; but if the lungs were sound, the bowels will on the 

 following day be the seat of disease. Stones in the intes- 

 tines are an occasional cause of inflammation, and colic 

 neglected or wrongly treated will terminate in it. 



The treatment of inflammation of the bowels, like that of 

 the lungs, should be prompt and energetic. The first and 

 most powerful means of cure will be bleeding. From six to 

 eight or ten quarts of blood, in fact as much as the horse can 

 bear, should be abstracted as soon as possible ; and the bleed- 

 ing repeated to the extent of four or five quarts more, if the 

 pain is not relieved and the pulse has not become rounder 

 and fuller. The speedy weakness that accompanies this 

 disease should not deter from bleeding largely. That weak- 

 ness is the consequence of violent inflammation of these 

 parts ; and if that inflammation is subdued by the loss of 

 blood, the weakness will disappear. The bleeding should be 

 effected on the first appearance of the disease, for there is no 

 malady that more quickly runs its course. A strong solution 

 of aloes should immediately follow the bleeding, but, consid- 

 ering the irritable state of the intestines at this period, guar- 

 ded by opium. This should be quickly followed by back- 

 raking, and injections consisting of warm water, or very thin 

 gruel, in which Epsom salts or aloes have been dissolved ; 

 and too much fluid can scarcely be thrown up. The horse 

 should likewise be encouraged to drink plentifully of warm 

 water or thin gruel ; and draughts, each containing a couple 

 of drachms of dissolved aloes, with a little opium, should be 

 given every six hours, until the bowels are freely opened. It 

 will now be prudent to endeavor to excite considerable exter- 

 nal inflammation as near as possible to the seat of internal 

 disease, and therefore the whole of the belly should be blis- 

 tered. In a well-marked case of this disease, no time should 

 be lost in applying fomentations, but the blister at once resor- 

 ted to. The tincture of Spanish flies, whether made with 

 spirits of wine or turpentine, should be thoroughly rubbed in. 

 The legs should be well bandaged in order to restore the cir- 

 culation in them, and thus lessen the flow of blood to the 



