SPASMODIC COLIC. 317 



matters in tlie bowels may have this effect. Now and then, 

 spasm is brought on by costiveness, and by stercoraceous 

 and calculous concretions. Crib-biting gives rise to attacks 

 like colic, from distension of the bowels with air ; but this is 

 a case which, like many others causing similar symptoms, 

 requires a modification of treatment. 



The Seat of spasm, ordinarily, is the small intestines ; 

 in particular, the jejunum and ileum. I have seen the 

 duodenum, however, contracted as well ; in one case, a few 

 inches from the stomach, its canal appeared to me perfectly 

 impassable. I have also, in three or four instances, met 

 with spasm in the large guts : in one, all three of them 

 exhibited evident marks of spasm ; the cseciim was exceed- 

 ingly distorted by contraction, and, instead of being full of 

 water, contained dung-balls ; even the rectum had manifestly 

 been spasmed. Usually, the intestinal tube is contracted to 

 a third or fourth or more of its original volume, with inter- 

 spaces of two, three, and four inches, and, in some cases, even 

 a foot or more in extent : on one occasion I met with con- 

 tractions, one measuring two feet, another a yard in length ; 

 the intermediate parts preserving their natural appearance. 

 The parietes of the gut, in the contracted places, feel, from 

 the condition they are in, thickened, when compared with 

 other parts; added to which, they are in a remarkable 

 degree whiter than the healthy portions. Sometimes it 

 happens, in consequence of the confinement of alimentary 

 or fluid matters between two of these contractions, that the 

 intermediate portion of gut becomes distended to that degree 

 that congestion — even in progress to gangrene, as I have 

 seen — ensues. In one case of death from unrelievable 

 spasms — found afterwards to exist in the jejunum and ileum 

 — I discovered the carotid arteries to be — spasmodically (?) 

 — contracted to half their natural caliber; though nothing 

 of the kind was perceptible in the aorta. During life, in 

 order to obtain blood — not being able to procure sufficient 

 from the jugulars — I was compelled to open the submax- 

 illary arteries, and from these vessels even, owing to the 

 contracted state of the carotids, the streams were nothing 



