DISEASES OF THE STOMACH AND BOWELS. 319 



gorge himself, perhaps scores of times, with impunity ; but if 

 there is any considerable derangement of the digestive func- 

 tions, Mature, whose laws are every-where coincident, exacts 

 the penalty of suflering, if not of death. 



TREATMENT. 



It would be impossible to condemn too strongly the stupid 

 practice, usually resorted to, of making the horse^s stomach a 

 receptacle for every vile nostrum which ignorance and pre- 

 sumption can devise. A great many more horses are killed 

 by excessive drenching than would die if nothing at all were 

 given them. One person recommends one thing, and another 

 advises something else, until, presently, a dozen or more dif- 

 ferent remedies have been prescribed, each of which, though 

 claimed as a certain specific, usually has no efi*ect save to 

 hasten a fatal termination. The anxious and over-excited 

 owner, that no effort may be left untried to save his faithful 

 animal, gives all that he is bidden to ; and when the end 

 comes, to which he himself has so largely but unwittingly 

 contributed, he shakes his head in hopeless wondermeAt at 

 the power of disease, or the strange ferocity of the hot. 



Yet there should be treatment of some kind, and that as 

 speedily as possible; for, though it is true that the horse 

 might recover without a finger being moved to assist him, no 

 one can know this positirely. On the other hand, all must 

 recognize the fact that many disorders, in the systems of both 

 man and beast, which at first are susceptible of easy control, 

 may at last baffle the utmost skill of the practitioner, if neg- 

 lected too long. 



The same methods will be equally effective, whether the 

 trouble has arisen in the large or the small intestines. The 

 great object to be obtained is a passage of the bowels, which 

 must be brought about with all possible speed. When this is 

 done, the horse's recovery may be guaranteed. As to the 

 hot, the inoffensive little creature is never likely to do half as 

 much damage as ignorant and foolish bystanders are. The 

 system must be relaxed at once, that contraction and stric- 



