86 XAVm ox THE HOESE. 



These difficulties may be suspected from the usual symptoms 

 of colic running into those of severe inflammation, the pain 

 and torture becoming very severe, and nothing passing through 

 the bowels. But there are no symptoms by which to tell, with 

 positive certainty, which of these troubles has taken place. 

 And, if there were, it would only show that the case was hope- 

 less, for nothino- could be done to efifect a cure. 



3, i.yji. iivi;iJ.xxxj_, 



METEORIZATION. 



This is not, properly speaking, a disease of itself. It is a 

 symptom liable to occur during the progress of other diseases 

 of the bowels, very suddenly and unexpectedly. It is a most 

 rapid swelling of the bowels, by the accumulation of gas in 

 the guts, and suffocation is threatened. The animal looks as 

 if blown up, as a boy does a mole. The belly is as tight as 

 a drum-head, and the wonder is that it does not burst. From 

 the great pressure on the lungs, death must soon occur from 

 suffocation, hence the gas must speedily be got rid of. But the 

 back channel does not allow any thing to pass. If the medi- 

 cines given to expel the gas do not act quick, there is only 

 one remedy left, and that is to plunge an instrument through 

 the flank into the swollen or distended gut. A long, narrow- 

 bladed knife will answer for this purpose. It should be 

 plunged into the side or flank at the most swollen point. A 

 tube, eight to ten inches long, should be at hand, to pass into 

 the hole as soon as the knife is taken out. It would be better 

 to slit the skin before plunging the knife in, to keep it from 

 drawing over the orifice and preventing the tube from being 

 put in. The tube should be just large enough to fill the hole 

 made by the knife. 



After the gas has escaped, the animal should be well clothed ; 

 and when he gets warm, and reaction has properly come up, to 

 prevent the occurrence of inflammation of the peritoneum from 

 the wound, bleed to the extent of eight to ten quarts. 



