168 VETERINARY LECTURES 



261. Concretions, or Calculi — accumulations of lime and 

 other matters in the bowels — occur in the large intestine, and occa- 

 sionally are of a great size. They are composed of dust, and phos- 

 phate of ammonia, magnesia, or lime ; some are hard as a stone, and 

 very smooth ; others are soft and convoluted. Millers' horses are 

 most subject to these. As long as the calculi remain quiet in the 

 pouches or part of the intestine in which they were formed, no 

 ill-effects are seen ; it is only when displaced that they produce 

 pain, and usually death. The symptoms exhibited resemble 

 those of knots, twists, etc. {par. 258), but are not nearly so acute 

 (Plate XX., B). As a rule, in all cases of bowel displacement and obstruc- 

 tion from calculi the animal cannot keep injections or drink ivater — in fact, 

 it strains very much when enemas are given. 



262. The following is an analysis of a calculus — one of six — 

 passed by a cob of my own, ' Quicksilver,' and analyzed by the 

 late Professor Sibson, London : 



Moisture ... ... ... J 5' 2 4 A 



Fatty matter ... 

 ♦Animal matter 

 I Ammonia, magnesia, phosphate 



Lime 



Alkaline salts ... 



oilica ... ••• ••• 



traces ,, 



31*5° .. 



52-16 ,, 



traces ,, 



•81 ., 



•29 ,, 



IOO'OO 



* Containing nitrogen from animal matter and combined ammonia 5- 10 % 

 f Equal to ammonia ... ... ••• ••• ••• "' IO - >. 



Specific gravity ... ... ••• ••• ••• ••• l 7 1 »» 



The cob was always full of fire, with plenty of ' stamp, style, and 

 fashion.' It never showed symptoms of pain, or ever refused its 

 food, until the day it died, at the age of thirty years, of rupture 

 of the stomach, caused by eating green tares. When in the stable, 

 prior to passing the calculi, I frequently found this animal standing 

 in an oblique fashion in the stall, with its near hind-leg forward, and 

 the front of the off hind-leg stretched across the back of the near 

 shank, the toe of the off hind-foot constantly in motion until the 

 stone into which the masterpost of the partition was fixed, as well as 

 the oak-sword, or plate, at the bottom of the partition, were worn 



