76 COLICS AND THEIR TREATMENT 



manipulations and would therefore be less hazardous 

 than operations requiring invasion of the lumen. I re- 

 gret to say that I have never been able to find these 

 conditions except at the postmortem examinations. 



THE LARGE INTESTINES 



Pain in the large bowels is easy to differentiate from 

 pain in the stomach or small intestines. It is always of 

 a milder type and often intermittent. It may last for 

 days. In practically all of the autopsies I have had the 

 opportunity to hold on animals, dead after long sieges of 

 colic, the incriminating lesion was found in the large 

 bowels. The pain may be acute in the early stage, but 

 this soon gives way to one that is milder and lasting. 



Sitting upon the haunches, dog-like, points to trouble 

 in the large bowels. The common sign of turning the 

 nose toward the flank is also one that is seen more often 

 in disorders of the large bowels than of the small ones, 

 although too much dependence must not be placed upon 

 this symptom because the same manifestation may be 

 seen in almost any form of colic. The act of holding the 

 nose at the flank for some moments at the time is, how- 

 ever, a certain indication of a grave condition, like strang- 

 ulated hernia, volvulus, invagination or fatal local ob- 

 struction of some other character. 



In stomach colics there is always the telltale dilatation 

 of the nostrils and local sweating about the fore parts 

 of the body, while in colon disorders these symptoms 

 are wanting after the bloating has been relieved. These 

 rules, of course, apply only to the early stages of the 

 affection. An impaction at the sternal flexure may give 

 rise to these stomach symptoms, but the differentiation is 



