190 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



remained in the state just alluded to for the space of sixteen days ; 

 there was no lateral motion to the jaws, but the patient could 

 readily imbibe thin oatmeal and flour gruel, and also the thera- 

 peutic agents, which consisted of the articles just named, and an 

 occasional laxative to keep the bowels soluble. The animal, 

 however, came near losing his life on the very night after 

 the jaws relaxed. He had been fed, watered, secured for the 

 night, and was left doing as well as any poor horse in his circum- 

 stances might be expected to do. Next morning he was found 

 down, his eyes tumefied, skin knocked off in various parts of the 

 head and body, belly enormously swollen, &c, all going to show 

 that he had, during the night, and was now, suffering from flatu- 

 lent colic. A barrel of beans scattered on the floor, one side of 

 the stall lying flat, and every thing about the barn presenting the 

 utmost confusion, went to show, that during the night our 

 patient got loose and went on a voyage of discovery within the 

 limits of the barn ; in the course of his travels he came across a 

 barrel of beans, a savory meal for a half-starved horse, and no 

 doubt he tried the strength of his masseter muscles, which had of 

 late been quite useless. The sudden change from gruel to hard 

 beans was too much for our patient's digestive organs ; hence the 

 colic. By the exhibition of diffusible stimulants, carminatives, 

 steaming, rubbing, &c, he got over the trouble, but was a long 

 while before all his external injuries healed ; he is at the present 

 time owned in Roxbury, apparently as well as ever. If we take 

 into consideration the animal's previous protracted illness, it seems 

 remarkable that he should have recovered. We should therefore 

 never despair. Another case of sympathetic tetanus occurred in 

 the same town, which was brought to a favorable termination : 

 the jaws relaxed on the fifth day, when the patient, in consequence 

 of being fed immediately with too bountiful a hand, died a few 

 days after of gastro-enteritis. We have lately viewed with 

 favor the theory of our veterinary luminaries, that tetanus in most 

 cases is of sympathetic origin. Some very interesting remarks 

 occur in Hippopathology bearing on this point, which we shall 

 here introduce as valuable acquisitions to our poverty-struck vet- 

 erinary literature. 



" The sympathetic disorder," writes Mr. Percivall, " as I shall 



