38 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



action of the gastric fluid is aided by the least movement of the 

 walls of the stomach, and without successive contractions and 

 relaxations of the muscular fibres of that organ we cannot insure 

 prompt digestion. 



If we can only effect the reduction of a small portion of the 

 alimentary mass, something has been done likely to benefit our 

 patient ; for, although, in consequence of obstruction to the py- 

 loric orifice, that portion of food which is now reduced to a 

 homogeneous mass cannot move onward through the alimentary 

 route, yet nature finds a way to get rid of it through another 

 channel. It is known to physiologists, that a portion of the nu- 

 tritious matter, dissolved by the gastric fluid, is at once absorbed 

 into the blood vessels of the stomach, and never passes into the 

 intestinal tube, nor into the special lacteal system. 



With the above object in view, we administer remedies of a 



stimulating and antiseptic character. 



^ Take pure pulverized capsicum, 

 " common salt. 



To half an ounce of the former add four ounces of the latter ; 

 rub them together in a mortar, and drench the horse with one 

 fourth, in a small quantity of water, at intervals of ten or twenty 

 minutes, until relief be obtained. 



A solution of pepsin (which is obtained from the washed 

 stomach of a cow, calf, or pig) might possibly act on the contents 

 of a distended stomach in much less time than any other agent ; 

 for, at the ordinary temperature of the body, it is a powerful 

 solvent. 



It seems strange, when we take into consideration that the 

 action of the gastric fluid, both in and out of the stomach, is 

 purely of a chemical nature, that practitioners do not avail them- 

 selves of chemical aids, (either the hydrochloric, acetic, or lactic 

 acids,) which are the real solvents detected in the gastric fluid, 

 rather than to resort to bloodletting; for however well calcu- 

 lated such evil doing may be to deprive the vital machinery of 

 blood, it cannot relieve the stomach of a load of semi-digested 

 food. It is the doctrine of the schools that any thing having a 

 tendency to overflow the brain with blood may be considered as 

 a cause for staggers, and the idea of the brain, in such cases, 



