COURSE AND TERMIXATIOX. 631 



mucous membranes, and tlie cold, clammy condition of the 

 mouth, become more marked. During the progress of the 

 symptoms the feeble and frequent condition of the pulse is 

 persistent; while towards the termination the animal may 

 show little pain, but stand persistently, until he finally drops ; 

 at other times he is violent to the last, gradually becoming 

 unconscious. 



Course and Termination. — When rupture of the walls of the 

 stomach is complete, the course may be rapid or more pro- 

 tracted, but the termination is generally fatal. When the rent 

 in the viscus is not great, and the escape of ingesta trifling, 

 with a tardy development of inflammatory action in the organ 

 itself and in the viscera and structures of the abdomen, the 

 horse may linger for forty-eight hours or more. When, how- 

 ever, the organ is extensively ruptured, we find a rapid develop- 

 ment of s3niiptoms, terminating in collapse in a few hours. 

 When life is prolonged there may, previous to death, be much 

 tympany ; in other cases, the opposite condition is observed. 



As in no case we may be able perfectly to satisfy ourselves 

 or others that this lesion has occurred, attempts will generally 

 be made to combat the most prominent features, those of 

 gastric disturbance with abdominal pain. In this it is gener- 

 ally observed that all medicines which may be administered 

 by the mouth seem to aggravate the already distressing symp- 

 toms, and that the only relief obtained is by blunting the 

 sensibility through the subcutaneous injection of morphia. 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



OF CERTAIN INTESTINAL SYMPTOMS AND FUNCTIONAL 

 DISORDERS. 



I. Constipation. 



Definition. — A condition of the boiuels in tuhich the f(Eces are 

 unnaturally retained, or, ^vhen voided, are less in amount 

 and harder in consistence. 



Pathology, a. Nature. — This can scarcely in itseK be 



