m 



THE MODERN SYSTEM 



C H A P T E R X. 



STONE IN THE INTESTINES STONE IN THE KIDNEYS, AND STONE 



IN THE BLADDER. 



STONE IN THE INTESTINES. 



This is a disease wliich we are unfortunately 

 obliged to acknowledge we have no remedy 

 for. the horizontal situation of the body of the 

 Horse, and the nature of the food, renders the 

 Horse particularly liable to concretions in the 

 intestines, and generally taking place in the 

 intestine teimed the colon, from a peculiar 

 curvature it has in doubling on itself; at this 

 curve, stone of the intestine generally is found. 

 Most of these concretes, however, are com- 

 posed at first of salubrious matter, which first 

 collecting around some accidental nucleus, as 

 a nail or stone, and very frequently it occurs 

 amongst millers' Horses, from a portion of the 

 grinding-stO!>es, by friction having become 

 mixed with the food millers' Horses generally 

 are fed with. From frequent deposits of a 

 portion of the alimentary contents coming in 

 contact with the nucleus, layer upon layer 

 becomes formed, until in some cases they are 

 of an enormous size ; and I have even seen 

 two in one animal j these calculi, in many 

 cases, are dense and hard to admit of a fine 

 polish, whilst some are of a softer nature, and 

 appear more like hardened dung, and will break 

 ( 'isv, taking on the shape of the dung. Hair 



balls I have frequently found in the intestines ; 

 but this more frequently occurs in neat cattle. 



Horses do not appear to suffer so much from 

 calculi as might at lirst be expected, and then 

 it only appears like an attack of gripes, on 

 account of obstructed dung in the intestine, 

 giving pain ; when the passage is accom- 

 plished, the pain immediately ceases. But 

 they frequently, or always, bring on a fatal 

 strangulatiiin, and consequent inflammation, in 

 such cases the Horse will fall a victim. 



As before stated, the cure is out of our power, 

 and the prevention is little less so, unless you 

 perceive the Horse addicted to eat roots or lick 

 up the earth, which they frequently are addicted 

 to : your only chance of prevention is to give 

 bran mashes for a day or two, until you per- 

 ceive his dung become moist, and if in work, 

 let him resume his usual food. 



STONE IN THE KIDNEYS. 



Stones sometimes form in the kidneys, in the 

 cavity which you perceive on dividing a kidnej 

 by a longitudinal section ; m the Horse they 

 accumulate till they fill the whole of the 

 cavitj ; and I once had a case, that from the 

 inflammation produced thereby, the kid- 

 neys became totally absorbed, and a large 



