364 THE HORSE. 



istered as food, and the following drench given by itself every 

 time there is a discharge of liquid faeces : — 



Take of Powdered Opium 1 drachm. 



Tincture of Catechu ^ ounce. 



Chalk ^lixture 1 pint. 



Mix and give as a drench. 



During the action of these remedies the body must be kept 

 warm by proper clothing, and the legs should be encased in flan- 

 nel bandages, previously made hot at the fire, and renewed as they 

 become cold. 



In dysentery (or molten grease) it is often necessary to take 

 a little blood away, if there is evidence of great inflammation in 

 the amount of mucus surrounding the faeces, and when aperient 

 medicine does not at once put a stop to the cause of irritation by 

 bringing the lumps away from the cells of the colon. Back-raking, 

 and injections of two ounces of laudanum and a pint of castor oil 

 with gruel, should be adopted in the first instance, but they will 

 seldom be fully efficient without the aid of linseed oil given by the 

 mouth. A pint of this, with half a pint of good castor oil, will 

 generally produce a copious discharge of lumps, and then the irri- 

 tation ceases without requiring any further interference. 



Whenever there is diarrhoea or dysentery present to any extent, 

 rice-water should be the sole drink. 



STRANGULATION AND RUPTURE. 

 Mechanical violence is done to the stomach and bowels in 

 various ways, but in every case the symptoms will be those of 

 severe inflammation of the serous coat, speedily followed by death, 

 if not relieved when relief is possible. Sometimes the stomach is 

 ruptured from over-distension — at others the small intestines have 

 been known to share the same fate, but the majority of cases are 

 due to strangulation of a particular portion of the bowels, by being 

 tied or pressed upon by some surrounding band. This may hap- 

 pen either from a loop of bowel being forced through an opening 

 in the mesentery or mesocolon, or from a baud of organized lymph, 

 the result of previous inflammation — or from one portion of the 

 bowels forcing itself into another, like the inverted finger of a 

 glove, and the included portion being firmly contracted upon by 

 the exterior bowel, so as to produce dangerous pressure (intussus- 

 ception), or, lastly, from a portion or knuckle of intestine forcing 

 its way through an opening in the walls of the abdomen, and then 

 called hernia or rupture, which being pressed upon by the edges 

 of the opening becomes strangulated, and if not relieved inflames, 

 and then mortifies. None of these cases are amenable to treat- 

 ment (and indeed they cannot often be discovered with certainty 

 during life, the sy upturns resembling those of ent^ritisj, except 



