SPASMODIC COLIC. 325 



even while the horse is standing, and with a great deal more 

 facility and effect while lying. 



Fatal Cases. — The following relation will show that 

 cases of pure colic will every now and then occur, baffling 

 all ordinary treatment, and calling for measures of the most 

 desperate kind we are able to employ. 



In March last, a troop-horse, who from some idiosyncrasy 

 had been the subject of two or three very violent attacks of 

 spasmodic colic, which induced me to say, that some day he 

 would die of the disease, returned to the infirmary with — I 

 forget whether it was a third or fourth — ^^ fit of the gripes.^^ 

 Knowing my subject, I at once proceeded to the most prompt 

 and energetic treatment : but, this time, in spite of all that 

 could be done, my patient, unfortunately, verified my pro- 

 phecy. He was attacked at three o^ clock p.m. on Wednesday, 

 and died at nine o^clock a.m. on Saturday. 



Autopsy. All sorts of morbid appearances usual on such 

 occasions had, in visions, run through my mind in the course 

 of my attendance. I imagined there might be some volvulus, 

 or knot, or intro-susception, or calculus ; but then, no symp- 

 toms of mortification had come on, nor were there such 

 decided signs of fever as we expect to find in inflammation. 

 It had all along appeared a case oi pure colic, accompanied 

 with complete stoppage in the bowels ; and such it proved. 

 The opening of the abdomen exposed the bowels of their 

 usual white glistening colour, and entirely free from inflam- 

 mation. At least a dozen places in which the gut was con- 

 tracted, from four to six inches in extent, appeared in the 

 length of the jejunum and ileum; and so close and firm 

 were these contractions, that even after vitality had left 

 them, did some of them resist the insufflation of air through 

 them j blowing through a pipe, as I did, with all my force. 

 The stomach was very much distended with air : and how 

 could it be otherwise, when not a particle of it could per- 

 meate the spasmed intestines? But the intestines them- 

 selves — the uncontracted portions of them — Mere, likewise, 

 tympanitic. And, as for all the medicine that had been 

 given, none of it appeared to have reached beyond the ex- 

 tent of fourteen inches along the duodenum. 



