318 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



compared to what they would normally have been. In a 

 case of extravasation of blood upon the cerebrum, I found 

 the small intestines evincing in divers places contractions as 

 great as though the horse had died of spasmodic colic ; and yet 

 he never had shown a single symptom of gripes : a circum- 

 stance that might be referred, perhaps, to the purges he had 

 taken. Another instance, however, of the same appearances 

 happened to me in a horse I had been treating for a fistula 

 of the worst description, who had not taken any medicine 

 for some days before death. These observations would lead 

 one to believe that contractions in the intestines may exist 

 without necessarily causing the animal pain. 



Duration. — Unless some decided check — if not a satis- 

 factory arrest — be put to the progress of the disease within 

 the first half-a-dozen hours, we may begin to harbour appre- 

 hensions about our success. Ordinary cases are relieved by 

 a single dose of medicine; many without any medicine at 

 all. Cases which run on unrelieved, to dissolution, seldom 

 exceed twenty-four hours in duration. 



In Stone Horses, particularly in such as have raced or 

 been in training, or have been kept as covering stallions, an 

 attack of colic or enteritic symptoms is on all occasions to 

 be viewed as, possibly or probably, connected with hernia. 

 The scrotum should be examined without delay, and all 

 inquiries made relative to the existence of rupture. Should 

 the symptoms continue unrelieved, w^e must not rest satisfied 

 with this even ; but proceed to an examination of the 

 inguinal canals and abdominal rings, in order that we may 

 be sure that no knuckle of intestine lies incarcerated any- 

 where.^ For the want of such thought and precaution 

 several valuable horses' lives have been lost, some of whose 

 cases stand recorded on paper, Avhile others only exist in the 

 mortified remembrances of those to whom they have unfor- 

 tunately happened. 



Relapse. — There are horses who, from some peculiar 

 susceptibility of the intestinal tube, are particularly obnoxious 



' For the method of exploring the inguinal canal and abdominal rings, turn 

 to the article ' Inguinal Hernia.' 



