SURGICAL TREATMENT OF COLICS 55 



observations on our patients, sick from abdominal dis- 

 eases, with a view of determining the exact nature of 

 the condition responsible for the pain. 



Autopsy after autopsy held on animals dead from col- 

 ics shows, too often, how wide of the mark our treat- 

 ment had been and how useless were our efforts to turn 

 the tide toward a recovery if we did succeed at a late 

 stage to discover the cause. Very often these post- 

 mortem investigations show that a vigorous attack at 

 the affected spot right from the beginning might have 

 been effective. 



By exclusion, we do sometimes, after a patient has 

 suffered for some time, make a correct diagnosis but 

 then it is usually too late to effect a cure. In short, such 

 cases are already beyond hope and out of reach of any 

 treatment when the diagnosis is made. 



The better management of abdominal diseases must 

 come through an intensive study of symptoms and groups 

 of symptoms coupled with probable causes which will en- 

 able us to determine early in the march of the disease 

 the exact seat and the exact nature of the trouble. 

 Abdominal Pains Misleading 



Abdominal pains, to say the least, are very misleading. 

 Even in human beings, where the symptoms are sub- 

 jective, grave errors are often made by the treachery of 

 pain. For example a patient with an attack of appen- 

 dicitis may complain of pain in the left loin or over the 

 solar plexus. The location of pain, in fact, gives no as- 

 surance that the lesion is at the same point. So mis- 

 leading are these expressed manifestations that only the 

 specialist seems able to properly interpret them. 



