DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 187 



History of the Case. — The horse had performed his usual daily 

 labor, without any fault-finding on the part of his driver, when, 

 all at once, he commenced to bloat, appeared uneasy, and, by 

 his actions, demonstrated very conclusively that he needed some 

 assistance. On examination, I found that the abdomen was dis- 

 tended to its utmost capacity. The walls of the abdomen were 

 rigid as a plank, and the respirations, in consequence of the great 

 pressure on the diaphragm and lungs, were very laborious and 

 much accelerated, amounting to about one hundred per minute. 

 The pulse was thready and indistinct; the tongue, livid; eyes, 

 glassy and protruding ; surface of the body, bedewed with a cold, 

 clammy perspiration ; paralysis ot the optic nerve had set in, and 

 the animal was "blind as a bat;" in fact, he was dead to all in- 

 tents and purposes. This was not the worst feature of the case. 

 He was continually vomiting from both nostrils, and, as the story 

 goes, " a horse that vomits surely dies." Occasionally the animal 

 would fall on the ground with violence, and then assume a vari- 

 ety of positions, in view of finding some relief, but, alas! to no 

 purpose. His agony was intense, and there seemed to be no re- 

 lief for him, unless by a surgical operation. Medicine was out 

 of the question ; the animal had lost the power of swallowing, and 

 an attempt to administer a drench would have choked him to 

 death; so I selected the most salient or tympanitic spot on the 

 left flank, and then sent a trocar and canula through the walls of 

 the abdomen into the large intestine. So soon as I had withdrawn 

 the trocar, the gas escaped very rapidly through the tube, making 

 a noise like a steam-whistle. The animal obtained almost imme- 

 diate relief, and the bad symptoms rapidly subsided, so that I was 

 enabled to give a colic drench. This operated to prevent fer- 

 mentation, and gave tone to the digestive organs. Two subse- 

 quent, drenches, of four ounces each, were given, and at the end 

 of twenty-four hours the animal was taken home. The slight 

 wound made through the walls of the abdomen into the intestine 

 healed readily, so that I had no trouble with that; and, to con- 

 clude, I would inform the reader that puncture of the intestine is 

 ti e only rational plan of treatment in a case of this character. 



Colic drench is made up of the following ingredients : 



No. 21. Fluid extract of ginger 2 oz. 



Fluid extract of golden seal 2 oz. 



Hyposulphite of soda 1 oz. 



