SURGICAL TREATMENT OF COLICS 61 



to pass it. Both of the questions are indeed pertinent, 

 and therefore need detailed replies. 



The fact that we have finally adopted the single tube 

 in our practice in preference to the double one, after 

 years of experimentation with both of them, leaves us no 

 choice but that of recommending the former; and yet 

 this decision need not be interpreted as a final condem- 

 nation of the double tube which has many adherents. 

 We discarded it because we found it possesses no ad- 

 vantages of sufficient importance to offset its greater cost, 

 and because we have yet to find a double tube of suffi- 

 cient internal caliber, and at the same time durable 

 enough to meet the approval of the veterinarian, who 

 keeps it in constant use. 



A stomach tube is a somewhat cumbersome affair to 

 carry with one, without exposing it to harsh treatment, 

 therefore the more complex it is the more likely it is 

 to become damaged in one way or other. 



Gastric lavage with a tube having both an influx and a 

 reflux channel has been practiced by human physicians 

 for years, and it is evidently from this practice that 

 veterinarians have conceived the idea of applying the 

 same method to the treatment of animals. In principle, 

 the idea seems good, but when put into practice side by 

 side with lavage with a single hose it is soon found that 

 in horses the actual force of the pump has very little in- 

 fluence in forcing out material from the stomach. The 

 intra-abdominal pressure after all must be depended 

 upon to bring out the accumulated material, and this pres- 

 sure is nearly always present when stomach cathetriza- 

 tion is required. 



