iJS COSTIVENESS; ITS CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, REMEDY. 



ing down of his pulse to a healthy standard will show. Too free use of urin* 

 balls, however, in the hands of horse keepers, spoils the action of the bladder. 

 See chap. ii. page 51. The French give a bottle of their routine wine made 

 warm, and most of our farriers administer a quart of ale with the same view. 

 Those are mostly wagon-horses, full of flesh, that so absorb the aqueous par- 

 ticles of the urine, and ultimately the principle thereof (termed urea), and 

 light up the fever anew. Another cause of feverish attacks, generally of the 

 slighter kind, but liable to prove fatal, if neglected, is the retention of his 

 dung, or constipation, which means costiveness. 



COSTIVENESS 



May be considered an original disease, and as one producing as well as being 

 produced by fever. That is to say, hardness of tJie faeces generally attends a 

 fever, and is frequently the chief cause of it : like the preceding ailment, we 

 have only to remove the cause, and the effect ceases. See also " Diseases of 

 the Liver." 



Cavses, — ^Want of the necessary or usual evacuation by stool, that is some 

 times occasioned by the bowels having lost the power of exf)elling their con- 

 tents, as described in the second chapter, page 45. Simply speaking, the in- 

 dividual having been a long time dosed with purgatives, any neglect hereof 

 causes the dung to harden and obstruct the contractile functions of the intes- 

 tines : heat ensues, and re-absorption takes place, as in case of retenti a of 

 urine, until the dung loses all moistun; and becomes as hard as baked clay, 

 forming in the rectum (or straight gut), small round lumps. 



The same kind of big fleshy horses as are liable to suppression of urine, are 

 also principal sufferers by constipation or costiveness. Hard food and hard 

 work in warm weather is very productive of this malady, which is often mis- 

 taken for inflammation of the bowels, the means of prevention, therefore, are 

 obviously the direct contrary mode of feeding, and also keeping ^ good watch 

 on the dunging of each horse in the team. 



Symptoms. — When constipation attends general fever, it is then but a cor- 

 responding symptom of that disorder, and the reader is referred back a few 

 pages to what is thei-e said on this head. But, when the pulse is not so high 

 as to warrant us in pronouncing it fever, and the dung is ascertained to be 

 hard, there is no difficulty in treating it as simple costiveness. It may be dis- 

 tinguished from colic and from inflammation of the intestines, by the quiet 

 state of the animal when he is down, which is not the case with either of those 

 disorders, in which pain of the bowels is most evident ; whereas, these do not 

 appear to suffer from the costiveness, though the brain and the whole of the 

 nervous system, become more or less affected from sympathy with the stomach, 

 and ultimately producing delirium and frenzy. His eyes offer the earliest 

 symptoms by their duiness, contraction, and expansion, succeeded by sleepi- 

 ness ; he refuses his food, he will not work, the mouth becomes hot and dry, 

 the ears cold, and the breathing difficult or nearly imperceptible on account 

 of the pressure of the stomach and bowels upon the midriff. See page 34. 

 The pulsation usually increases, if he be in a tolerably good condition ; but 

 ttiis increase is ever inconsiderable until fever comes on, and marks the period 

 when blood-letting would be necessary. A dull heavy pulse is more common, 

 until the paroxysms of madness may render this symptom a little sharper and 

 quicker for a short period. At length he tumbles down, regardless of the 

 situation, and the action of the head shows how greatly this part is affected, 

 antil stupor and death ensue, if the sufferer be not relieved. 



Remedy. — Purgatives are not always the most eligible medicines even in 

 th*> i-arlirst stages of the disorder ; for, if the constipation has lasted » con? 



