SPASMODIC COLIC. 323 



dung, and so tends rather to relieve than to augment the 

 spasm. For all this, I do not mean to say I would violently 

 urge on a reluctant or unwilling patient with whip or spur : 

 far from it, should he appear to be in such pain as to render 

 him almost unable to move, I certainly would be the last to 

 compel him. 



Bloodletting is not needed until we have had a fair trial of 

 the antispasmodic medicine and of exercise. The case growing 

 desperate, our remedies must be potent and impressive. A 

 large bloodletting is very often succeeded by a copious sweat ; 

 and so desirable an effect should be as much as possible 

 encouraged, in the present instance, by warm clothing, &c. 

 Should the case continue unrelieved, another venesection 

 may be called for; but at what time and in what quantity 

 the practitioner in attendance can alone determine. 



The French veterinarians, though not in general advocates 

 for bloodletting, are very loud in their praise of venesection 

 in colic. ^'We have seeji (says the Compte Rendu for 

 Alfort, for 1841-2) horses in an absolutely furious state 

 from an attack of colic, whom we have been compelled to 

 shackle while bleeding, on account of their precipitate and 

 dangerous movements, become calm and quiet after the ab- 

 straction of about twenty or twenty-five pounds of blood. 

 [Veterinarian for 1843.] And in the same Report for the 

 next year, we find the following : — 



This practice (bloodletting), long adopted in our hospitals, 

 is based on this incontestable fact, that, whenever the in- 

 testinal pain announces itself by any violent movements, 

 there is one or another of these causes, either congestion in 

 some isolated part, or extending through the intestinal 

 canal. (Ibid.) 



Clysters. — A clyster composed of two ounces of Cape 

 aloes dissolved in six quarts of soap-water or gruel, may be 

 administered after trial of the simple soap and water clyster ; 

 or one in which a pint of oil of turpentine is substituted for 

 the aloes may be given with a view of relieving the spasm. 

 But v/hat, in a case of any danger, is better than either, is 

 the clyster of tobacco, either in the form of infusion or 



