234 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINE/ 



When relief has been obtained, the clothing of the horse, satu-atea with peiapira- 

 tion, should he removed, and fresh and dry clothes substituted. He should be well 

 ittered down in a warm stable or box, and have bran mashes and lukewarm watei 

 for the two or three uext days. 



Some persons give gin, or gin and pepper, or even spirit of pimento, in cases ol 

 gripes. This course of proceeding is, however, exceedingly objectionable. It may 

 be useful, or even sufficient, in ordinary cases of colic ; but if there should be any 

 inflammation or tendency to inflammation, it cannot fail to be highly injurious. 



FLATULENT COLIC. 



This is altogether a different disease from the former. It is not spasm of the bowels, 

 but inflation of them from the presence of gas emitted by undigested food. Whethei 

 collected in the stomach, or small or large intestines, all kinds of vegetable matter 

 are liable to ferment. In consequence of this fermentation, gas is evolved to a greater 

 or less extent perhaps to twenty or thirty times the bulk of the food. This may 

 take place in the stomach ; and if so, the life of the horse is in immediate danger, for, 

 as will plainly appear from the account that has been given of the O3sophagus and 

 upper orifice of the stomach, the animal has no power to expel this dangerous flatus 

 by eructation. 



This extrication of gas usually takes place in the colon and caecum, and the disten- 

 tion may be so great as to rupture either the one or the other, or sometimes to produce 

 death, without either rupture or strangulation, and that in the course of from four to 

 twenty-four hours. 



In some ill-conducted establishments, and far oftener on the north than the south 

 of the Tweed, it is a highly dangerous disease, and is especially fatal to horses of 

 heavy draught. An overloaded stomach is one cause of it, and particularly so when 

 water is given either immediately before or after a plentiful meal, or food to which 

 the horse has not been accustomed is given. 



The symptoms, according to Professor Stewart, are, " the horse suddenly slacken- 

 ing his pace preparing to lie down, or falling down as if he were shot. In the 

 stable he paws the ground with his fore feet, lies down, rolls, starts up all at once, 

 and throws himself dow r n again with great violence, looking wistfully at his flanks, 

 and making many fruitless attempts to void his urine." 



Hitherto the symptoms are not much unlike spasmodic colic, but the real character 

 of the disease soon begins to develope itself. It is in one of the large intestines, and 

 the belly swells all round, but mostly on the right flank. As the disease proceeds, 

 the pain becomes more intense, the horse more violent, and at length death closes the 

 scene. 



The treatment is considerably different from that of spasmodic colic. The spirit of 

 pimento would be here allowed, or the turpentine and opium drink ; but if the pain, 

 and especially the swelling, do not abate, the gas, which is the cause of it, must be 

 be got rid of, or the animal is inevitably lost. 



This is usually or almost invariably a combination of hydrogen with some other 

 gas. It has a strong affinity for chlorine. Then if some compound of chlorine the 

 chloride of lime dissolved in water, is administered in the form of a drink, the chlo- 

 rine separates from the lime as soon as it comes into contact with the hydrogen, and 

 muriatic gas is formed. This gas having a strong affinity for water, is absorbed by 

 any fluid that may be present, and, quitting its gaseous form, either disappears, 01 

 does not retain a thousandth part of its former bulk. All this may be very rapidly 

 accomplished, for the fluid is quickly conveyed from the mouth to every part of the 

 intestinal canal. 



Where these two medicines are not at hand, and the danger is imminent, the trochar 

 may be used, in order to open a way for the escape of the gas. The trochar should 

 be small but longer than that which is used for the cow, and the puncture should be 

 made in the middle of the right flank, for there the large intestines are most easily 

 reached. In such a disease it cannot be expected that the intestines shall always b 

 found precisely in their natural situations, but usually the origin of the ascending por- 

 tion of the colon, or the base of the caecum, will be pierced. The author of this work, 

 however, deems it his duty to add, that it is only when the practitioner despairs of 

 otherwise saving the life of the animal that this operation should be attempted. Mucli 

 of the danger would be avoided by using a verv small trochar. and bv withdraw inf 



