72 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



symptoms only too painfully diagnostic in their 

 character. 



Diagnosis. — ' There exist two cogent reasons for 

 wishing to be able to pronounce at once upon a case of 

 ruptured stomach : the first is, the preservation, if not 

 enhancement, of the medical attendant's reputation ; the 

 second, the saving of solicitude on his part, and the 

 annoyance on the part of his patient, of administering 

 anything under such hopeless circumstances. '^ 



Difficult to describe, it is the character of the pulse 

 that gives the experienced veterinarian his first warning 

 of the fatal nature of his case. During the early stages — 

 that is, before rupture has occurred — the pulse is full and 

 firm in its beats ; contracted to a thread only during the 

 paroxysms of colic ; again becoming full and bounding 

 in the intervals of comparative ease. With the appear- 

 ance of rupture its whole character is altered, and it grows 

 small, frightfully quick, and as frequent as 90 to 120. I 

 cannot better describe ' small ' than by saying it is that 

 kind of pulse the novice has difficulty in detecting at 

 all — the vessel is not fully distended. The respirations 

 become accelerated, and the conjunctiva slightly injected. 

 The pains increase in violence, and the patient becomes 

 almost ungovernable. Later, the unfortunate animal is 

 bathed in sweat, trickling in drops down the face, running 

 down the mane, coursing in streams down the inside of 

 the arms and thighs, and splashing in drops from the 

 belly. Violent tremors shake the body, the tail is out- 

 stretched and quivering, and the extremities are deathly 

 cold. The hand that takes the pulse in the brachial 

 region is withdrawn with a shudder ; the signs conveyed 

 to it lead to an almost instinctive dread, a significant 

 intuition of fast-coming dissolution. 



^ Percivall's ' Hippopathology,' vol. ii., p. 24. 



