114 T^HE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



The stimulative treatment advised in the foregoing 

 pages was first pubHshed in 1900. Since then it has been 

 favourably mentioned by Mr. E. R. Harding, M.R.C.V.S., 

 of Salisbury, who made it the subject of an address 

 delivered before the members of the Southern Counties 

 Veterinary Medical Society in 1901. The subject of 

 Mr. Harding's remarks was the ' Treatment of Intestinal 

 Impaction.' For his words I am indebted to the report 

 contained in the Veterinary Record.^ They are as 

 follows : 



' My reason for choosing this subject was, not that I 

 have anything original to offer you, but rather the 

 reverse. It is to give you my experience of the treat- 

 ment advocated in a very able article by Mr. H. Caulton 

 Reeks, F.R.C.V.S., of Spalding, Lincolnshire, which 

 appeared in the Journal of Comparative Pathology and 

 Therapeutics for March, 1900. 



' The disease is a common one to practitioners in 

 agricultural districts, owing mainly to the domestic mis- 

 management of the farmer's horses. The system which 

 prevails in the district in which I practise seems to be 

 pretty general. The horses have their first meal about 

 five o'clock in the morning. It consists of a small portion 

 of corn, generally soaked maize ; in some cases half 

 maize and oats. With this is mixed a large quantity of 

 wheat or oat hulls or cut straw chaff. After they have 

 been feeding on this for an hour and a half, they are 

 turned out to drink, then harnessed, and start for work 

 at seven. They are kept at it, with but very few excep- 

 tions, without more food or water, until between three 

 and four in the afternoon. They certainly have a rest 

 about noon, when the men get their lunch, but they have 

 to stand in their harness, mayhap, in the hot sun or cold 

 ^ Veterinary Record, vol. xiv., p. loS. 



