04 TREATMENT OF MOLTEN GREASE. COLIC. 



cretions in succession, here referred to, is pretty well recognised, and is easily 

 provcable, in the manner there set down ; the unctuous, mucous, or greasy se- 

 cretion (call it which we Hke) of the external surfaces following that of the 

 more liquid, or watery kind, after any great exertion. Horses that contract 

 molten grease are ever those which have been highly fed, without exercise suf- 

 ficient to excite visible perspiration thereby ; and the feverish heat of the body 

 occasioned by high living and indolence, in time exhausts the whole supplv 

 of the aqueous secretion. So much is this the case, that the animal's dis 

 charge of urine becomes less and less as its seclusion is continued, until the 

 decided access of fever takes place, and we notice its colour is higher and highei 

 as its quantity decreases. [Look again at sec. 55, page 52.] As before ex- 

 l)lained, the secretion of mucous matter takes place within the guts, &c., or 

 that surface which is next to the food ; on the other sidt^, and every other part 

 of the animal system, the watery secretion destined to lubricate the parts, t| 

 keep them supple and to prevent adhesion, takes place. On that side (which 

 is popularly considered the outer surface!) good quantities of fat accrue, all 

 along the whole length of the intestines, which is usually scraped from slain 

 beasts, and preserved as tallow. From this source is derived that access of 

 grease, which, as I have said, is greatest as the inflammatory symptoms may 

 be higher. When this has long been the case, and stools are at length pro- 

 cured, a long thin wormlike portion of this fat comes away with the dung; 

 which would be of itself a sufiiciently alarming appearance, though wanting 

 animation, but for the well known, but inexplicable, doctrine of effusion, or 

 communication through the gut : this appearance, then, of a long tenacious 

 fatty portion of thin membrane, which usually accompanies molten grease, 

 should be considered as little more than denoting the crisis of the disorder. 



Let the system be reduced according as the state of the pulse may dictate 

 —for which consult again page 62; as to bleeding, and page 68, 69, as to treating 

 him for " costiveness" simply. If heat and irritation be perceivable to the 

 touch and sight about the anus, without high pulse, the first symptom may 

 be reduced by administering 



The Sedative Clyster. 



Camphor, 4 drachms, 



Spirits of wine, 3 or 4 drops, 

 to promote the solution, and add 



Sweet oil, 2 ounces. 

 Mix well, and then add thin warm water gruel, 2 or 3 quarts. 



As before intimated, molten grease is rather an effect than a cause of dis- 

 ease, and partakes of colic in one of its forms and of inflammation in the 

 other; the symptoms that enable us to distinguish when the one or the other 

 prevails being precisely those set down at page 90, Allowing somewhnt for 

 the feverish symptoms that always prevail with such fat and bloated animals 

 as are subject to this disorder, the practitioner can not commit himself to the 

 guidance of a better test than that just referred to, nor more safely ado|)t a 

 treatment that is more likely to reinstate his patient in health. For the treat- 

 ment which is proper in case of spasmoilic colic affecting fat animals, thp 

 feader is referred to the next head of information. 



THE COLIC, GRIPES, or FRET. 



This disorder has been frequently referred to, under the preceding head of 

 Inflammaiion of the Intestines, to which it bears great aflinity m some of it« 



