INTESTINES— DISEASES OF. (ft 



renJers the tiilestinal canal obnoxious to repeated strong drastic purges, par- 

 ticularly aloes of the Barbadoes kind, that heat and irritate the parts by their 

 coarseness. Inflammation is most likely to succeed such irritation, in sum- 

 mer-time especially, and the animal is usually destroyed by the pretended rf> 

 medics of the farriers; or, being pressed forward in his work during the attacK, 

 goes until he drops down and dies. At the fundament may be seen the ear- 

 liest indications of this species of over-physicking, in the disgusting protrusion 

 of the inner coat whilst expelling the contents thereof; an ordinary effort of 

 nature to get rid of what is offensive to it, which, considering the horizontal 

 position of the horse, might appear wonderful to us bipeds, but for the well- 

 known double operation of the coats of the intestines. From the top to the 

 bottom of the canal a spiral motion is kept up by the alternate contraction of 

 the two coats thereof, the one in circumference, the other lengthwise, resem- 

 bling that of a worm, and appearing as if a corkscrew agitated its inside. By 

 this means the mass is pressed backwards, and as it increases in quantity and 

 becomes less and less clearable, the offended nerves excite the guts to renew- 

 ed efforts for its expulsion, in which the lower part of the belly, with its cover 

 ing, from the ccecum to the sphincter, concurs with all its powers of contrac- 

 tion. Partial retention of the breath, and consequent pressure upon the mid- 

 riff, and parts behind it, contribute to lessen the longitude of the intestine at 

 every effort. This kind of excitement, if repeated too often, it is plainly to be 

 seen, must keep up the irritation of the parts concerned in it, and dispose them 

 to contract inflammatory complaints. 



48. In length about thirty yards, the intestinal canal has in its course two 

 or three different offices to perform towards digestion, whereof the smallest 

 gut nearest the stomach is for receiving the gall, or bile that has been formed 

 in the liver for that purpose. At the termination of that small gut, at the end 

 of twenty yards, an immensely large one occurs, called the sac (coecum), or 

 blind gut, where the contents are prevented from issuing too soon, by reason 

 of the internal coat of the small gut getting into ft)lds, as it were. We may 

 as well consider this as another valve ; and that it was provided by the Author 

 of Nature to correct the animal's propensity for transgressing his laws against 

 repletion, as well as to prevent the contents of the coecum from returning up- 

 wards, when this latter is compressing the large intestines backwards, in the 

 act of dunging. But inflammation sometimes, obstructions oftencr, produce 

 at this place more tedious affections than is generally imagined. When it so 

 happens that the stimulus of the bile is insufficient (as in diseased liver), and 

 acrimonious particles are left behind, or the half-masticated food inflicts in- 

 juries on the very sensible surface of this passage, then the noisome effluvia 

 reascends to the stomach; the bile, too, enters it soon after, by reason of the 

 intestines having lost their power of compression and elongation, when the 

 corkscrew motion downwards is changed to an upwards motion, and all be- 

 comes disorder in that region. Loss of appetite, fever and dullness, with droop- 

 ing as if in pain, and a staring coat, follow each other in succession ; for the 

 secretion of bile, which I shall come presently to describe, as affecting the 

 skin, is thereby vitiated. These appearances it has been a fashion to considei 

 " symptoms of the worms," or of " debiUty " (another term for low fever) ; and 

 the practice of administering bitter medicines, that are supposed to kill the 

 worms, is only successful on account of their restoring the tone of the stomach, 

 and by supplying to the intestines a congenial stimulus in the place of hue 

 This was the rase with Mr. White's statement, in vol. i. p. 170, where he 

 says, "I have sometimes succeeded in destroying worms by giving aloes, onu 

 dram and a half, every morning until purging was producal." That is to say, 

 "the horse became well ;" but whether he had any worms to be destroyed ie 

 another question ; and then, if a dram and a half would succee<l suinetiims, J 

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