19 



found to be a restorative, and a smaller quantity ol 

 oats then sufficeth. A gradual return to hard food 

 does all for the horse that can be desired. Not unfre- 

 quer.tly a diuretic is all the animal needs, which must 

 be determined by the state of the pulse after the med- 

 icine has operated. 



COSTIVENESS. 



Symptoms.— 'When constipation or stoppage attends 

 general fever, it is then a corresponding system of 

 that disorder, and the reader is referred to inflamma- 

 tory fever, on the l3th and 14th pages. But when 

 the pulse is not so high as to pronounce it fever, and 

 the dung is asceitained to be hard, there is no difficul- 

 ty in treating it as simple costiv^eness. It may be dis- 

 tingushed from cholic and from inflammation of the 

 intestines, by the quiet stale of the animal when he is 

 down, which is not the case with either of those dis- 

 orders, in which pain of the bowels is most evident ; 

 whereas these do not appear to suffer from the cos- 

 tiveness, though the brain and the whole of the ner- 

 vous system, become more or less aflected from sym- 

 pathy with the stomach, and ultimately producing de- 

 lirium and frenzy. His eyes ofler the earliest symp- 

 toms, by their dullness, contraction and expansion, 

 succeeded by sleepiness; he refuses food, he will not 

 work, ihe mouth becomes hot and dry, the ears cold, 

 and the breathing difficult or nearly imperceptible. 

 The pulsation usually mcreases, if he be in tolerable 

 condition. At length he tumbles down, regardless of 

 the situation, and the action of the head shows how 

 greatly it is aflected, until stupor and death ensue, if 

 he be net relieved. 



Remedy. — Purgatives are not always the most eligi- 

 ble medicines, even in the earliest stages of the disor- 

 der; for, if the constipation or stoppage has lasted a 

 considerable time, great injury would be dor^e to the 

 intestines, by forcing a passage. As soon as it is as- 

 certained that the animal has not dunged in several 

 days — when he seems uneasy, a fulness is perceived 

 towards the flank, the fundament, &c., and unusual 

 dryness and lightness is discovered at this latter part, 



15 



