CONSTIPATION. G35 



pasture, if the case has occurred tliere, and allow a little well- 

 boiled barley, or well-steamed oats, with a larger proportion of 

 sweet bran, to which may be added either treacle or linseed- 

 oil. When inclined to drink we may dissolve in the water, 

 gruel, or linseed-tea, a moderate amount of sulphate of soda or 

 magnesia. Such treatment, with the employment twice or 

 three times daily of enemata of tepid water or oil, will, in the 

 milder cases, be sufficient in the course of a few days to induce 

 the removal of the retained material ; while, with a continuance 

 of a suitable dietary, the animal may be speedily restored to 

 health. In more severe or prolonged cases it will generally be 

 necessary to exhibit some purgative agent, either a suitable 

 dose of aloes, or where the patient is young, which they often 

 are, a full oleaginous draught is to be preferred ; while, where 

 either tenesmus or rectal irritation has been marked, it is always 

 good practice to resort to the repeated employment of enemata. 

 After the bowel has responded to this medicinal interference 

 there is almost invariably a disposition to a recurrence of 

 torpidity ; this it is better not to meet with a renewal of simple 

 purgatives, but with a combination of these and certain tonics, 

 or probably with the latter alone, in conjunction with suitable 

 dietary. For such cases I have found that the most useful 

 tonic is a combination of aloes, assafoetida and nux vomica 

 made into ball, and given once or twice daily. 



These medicines must be continued for some time ; and 

 while being continued, as also following their cessation, all will 

 be useless unless the dietary is of such a character as will tend 

 both to general restoration and to the recovery of particular 

 functional activity. During the entire treatment, unless the 

 weakness and exhaustion forbid it, the animal ought to have 

 daily exercise in the open air, and an unrestricted allowance of 

 pure or medicated water to drink. 



Another class of cases of simple or uncomplicated confine- 

 ment of the bowels often engages the attention of the veterinary 

 practitioner in the very young. Foals immediately after birth 

 are found to be much disturbed owing to inability to void the 

 meconium, the material which has accumulated in the canal 

 during intra-uterine life. This state of confinement and 

 difficulty of discharging the primary contents of the intestines 

 is more frequently found in animals whose dams have been kept 



