354 CATTLE. 



among the intestines, some alarming sj^mptoms will occasionally ' 

 supervene. The belly will sAvt^!\, and sometimes to a considerable 

 extent. Fomentations and, if necessary, scarifications may be resorted 

 to. There may be manifest symptoms of fever, as sliiverings, heav- 

 ing at the flanks, and cessation of rumination. Blood sliould then 

 be abstracted, according to the state of the patient ; half-pound 

 doses of Epsom salts should be given morning and night, until the 

 bowels are moderately opened, and the beast should have little be- 

 sides mashes and gruel, and should be kept as quiet as porsible. 



INTROSUSCEPTION OF THE BOWELS. 



This is another fatal consequence of colic. While certain portions 

 of the ileum or jejunum generally, but occasionally of the larger 

 bowels, are distended by gas, other parts are spasmodically contracted, 

 and then, by the increased peristaltic motion which is going on, the 

 collapsed part of the superior or anterior intestine slides, or is forced 

 down, into the distended part behind ; or, by that inverted action 

 which takes place in the intestine commotion of colic, a contracted 

 portion of the bowel slides or is forced into the distended part before, 

 and thus one intestine is strangely contained within another, and 

 that occasionally reaching to a considerable e.vtent. The mesentery 

 is usually torn in this unnatural procedure, for otherwise that too 

 must be taken up or carried down into the distended intestine above 

 or below. 



It will be easily conceived that this will inflict great torture on the 

 beast, and an examination after death will sufficiently prove the in- 

 tensity of the sufi"ering ; for there will be much inflammation, and 

 generally gangrene of the involved part ; and sometimes of both por- 

 tions of the intestine. The symptoms by which the practitioner may 

 be induced to suspect, or may know, that colic has run on to intro- 

 busception, are not yet determined. Increase of pain, attended by 

 obstinate constipation, rapid prostration of strength, and compara- 

 tively little fever, may be obscure indications. It is evident that this 

 case must be beyond the reach of medical skill. 



INVERSION OF THE RECTUM. 



It has occasionally happened in the straining of diarrhoea, and in 

 the still more violent eftbrts with which the faeces are expelled in 

 dysentery, that a portion of the rectum is protruded from the anus ; 

 the sphincter muscle of the anus then contracts violently upon it, 

 and no efi'ort of the animal can draw it back, nor will it readily yield 

 to any external force employed. The blood is necessarily congested 

 in the protruded intestine, from the situation of the part ; the gut is 

 intensely red, and it gradually becomes livid, black, gangrenous. 

 The animal all the while is making frequent and violent eftbrts, during 

 which small quantities of excrement, or mucus, or blood, or gas, are 



