COMA. 



41 



ried up around the nose of the horse, to save waste; or 

 place the sponge in the bottom of a nose bag,. and put it 

 on the head, but not too close upon the nose. 



Last Remedy.— li must be confessed that the longer 

 this disease is unrelieved, the more remote is the chance 

 of recovery, as the bowel sometimes contracts upon itself, 

 or nearly closes altogether. To overcome this condition 

 an operation is recommended, which I do not say will be 

 a success, nor yet a failure. When it failed in my hands, 

 it was not because the gas was not let out of the bowels, 

 but because the blood had become so disintegrated, and 

 the nervous centres so paralyzed, that the sanative powers 

 of the constitution had received too great a shock to ever 

 rally again. 



The Operation. — Procure an instrument, (see In- 

 struments,) called a trocar. If this be not at hand, 

 sharpen a breakfast knife, and measure an equal dis- 

 tance from the haunch bone and the short rib, and not 

 too high upon the back ; force the knife into the distended 

 bowel, and turn the knife in the wound thus made, and 

 hold it there until all the imprisoned gas has escaped; 

 and as the gas sometimes still accumulates, keep the 

 knife or instrument in the wound, if it be for half a day. 

 When the knife or instrument is taken out, place a piece 

 of sticking plaster over the wound. (See Medicines.) 



Stones, or hair calculi, are often found, after death, in 

 the bowels of horses subject to colic. I have seen six 

 taken from one mare that I had under treatment. Re- 

 member, the great principle in the treatment of colic, in 

 all its forms, is to relieve pain. This also holds good in 

 most diseases of horses. The doctor, if he fail to allay 

 pain, cannot cure the disease. 



Coma.— A horse is said to be in a comatose state when 



