232 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



to the pancreas and a small portion of the colon. Beino^, however, thus short, the 

 horse is exempt from a very troublesome and, occasionally, fatal species of nipture, 

 when a portion of the omentum penetrates through some accidental opening in the 

 covering of the belly. 



The structure of the urinary organs and the diseases to which they are exposed 

 will be hereafter considered. 



CHAPTER X. 



THE DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



These form a very important and mysterious class of ailments. They will be 

 considered in the order in which the various contents of the abdomen have been 

 described. 



THE DUODENUM. 



This intestine is subject to many more diseases than are included in the present 

 imperfect veterinary nosology. The passage of the food through it has been impeded 

 by stricture. A singular case is related by Mr. Tombs : — " An aged horse was taken 

 suddenly ill. He lay down, rolled upon his hack, and perspired profusely, with a 

 pulse quick and hard ; presently he became sick, and the contents of the stomach 

 were voided through the mouth and nostrils. Blood-letting, purgatives, fomentations, 

 &c., were resorted to, but in sixteen hours after the first attack the horse died. The 

 stomach was distended with food, and there was a complete stricture of the duode- 

 num, three inches posterior to the entrance of the hepatic duct. The portion of the 

 investine anterior to the stricture was distended, and in a gangrenous state."* 



Mr. Dickens records a somewhat similar case. " A horse was attacked by appa- 

 rent colic. Proper treatment was adopted, and he got seemingly well. Nine days 

 afterwards the apparent colic returned. He threw himself down, rolled upon his 

 back, beating his chest with his fore feet, or sitting upon his haunches like a dog. 

 All possible remedial measures were adopted, but he died thirty-six hours after the 

 second attack. At the distance often inches from the stomach was a stricture which 

 would scarcely admit of the passage of a tobacco-pipe, and about which were marks 

 of mechanical injury, as if from a nail or other hard substance. The anterior por- 

 tion of the intestines was strangely distended. "j" 



It has been perforated by hots. Mr. Brewer describes a case the symptoms of 

 which were similar to those already related. " On examining the patient after death, 

 the intestines were found to be al'ogether free from disease, except a portion of the 

 duodenum which was perforated by bots, several of which had escaped into the 

 abdomen. Around the aperture the duodenum was in a gangrenous state.":}: 



The diseases of the jejunum and the ileum consist either of spasmodic affection or 

 inflammation. 



SPASMODIC COLIC. 



The passage of the food through the intestinal canal is effected by the alternate 

 contraction and relaxation of the muscular coat of the intestines. AVhen that action 

 is simplv increased through the whole of the canal, the food passes more rapidly, and 

 purging is produced ; but the muscles of every part of the frame are liable to irregular 

 and spasmodic action, and the muscular coat of some portion of the intestines may be 

 thus affected. The spasm may be confined to a very small part of the canal. The 

 gut has been found, after death, strangely contracted in various places, but the con 

 traction not exceeding five or six inches in any of them. In the horse, the ileum is 

 the usual seat of this disease. It is of much importance to distinguish between spas- 

 modic colic and inflammation of the bowels, for the symptoms have considerijahi 

 resemblance, although the mode of treatment should be very different. 



* Veterinarian, vol. viii. p. 329. t Ibid. vol. x. p. 553. t Ibid. vol. v. p. 493. 



