A.7 



Tiie Gripes, or Spasmodic Cholic, may be occa- 

 sioned by air distending the bowels ; being let loose 

 from green food, particularly when unripe, or in a 

 state of fermentation, as is the case when it has been 

 cut some time. This species of cholic is frequent 

 where horses are soiled, from the carelessness of 

 grooms in heaping up the green food in large quanti- 

 ties, and pressing it close, and particularly from giv- 

 ing it stale : it should never be given beyond the se- 

 cond day. 



Too large a quantity of food may occasion it : 

 thus horses newly turned to grass, particularly into 

 tares, clover, &c., are very apt to have it. After long 

 fasting, when their eagerness induces them to eat vo- 

 raciously, cholic is not unfrequent/ 



Cold, likewise, is a cause of cholic ; but cold wa- 

 ter drank when a horse is warm is the most frequent 

 of all the causes. 



The principal point, is, to distinguish these two 

 kinds of cholic from each other, which an attention 

 to the following circumstances will generally render 

 not difficult. When a horse is suddenly seized with 

 a violent pain ; kicking his belly with his hind foot ; 

 laying down and stretching out his limbs as though 

 dying ; suddenly getting up again, and when down, 

 rolling on his back ; his pulse being but little affect- 

 ed; breaking out in cold sweats, but the legs and 

 ears not much altered in their general warmth ; the 

 distress very great, and the pain ha\ing sudden re- 

 missions; — when all these symptoms appear, a horse 

 may be safely concluded to be labouring under the 

 gripes. 



But when a horse is more slowlv seized, and his 



