274 BOVINE PATHOLOGY. 



required ; if necessary, these may be given, but an obsti- 

 nate case is probably more complicated than was at first 

 supposed. Flatulent colic also is not frequent ; it may be 

 diagnosed from the spasmodic form by less urgency, but 

 more persistent character of the symptoms, by gaseous 

 eructations and emissions of flatus per anum, and some- 

 times by tympanic distension of the right side of the 

 abdomen. In such cases ammonia stimulants must pre- 

 ferably be administered with the carthartic dose. The 

 patient should be walked about, and friction applied to 

 the right side. These seldom prove very obstinate cases. 

 We insist on the cathartic because it tends to remove the 

 cause, and its administration is not open to the objections 

 urged against prompt adoption of such a course of treat- 

 ment of colic in the horse. In all cases of abdominal dis- 

 order manual exploration of the rectum should be made, 

 and enemas utilised to facilitate supervention of catharsis. 

 We must now proceed to some other causes of colic. 



Impaction, or Distension with Obstruction, op the 

 Bowels may be due to calculous concretions, bodies 

 which have gained entry through relaxed vigilance of the 

 gastric protective apparatus, also tumours of various kinds, 

 among which may be enumerated the enormous swellings 

 of the mesenteric glands of a case, of which Mr. Brown of 

 Melton gives an account in the ' Veterinarian' for February, 

 1830. The tumour weighed 160 lbs., and had a scirrhous 

 character. In one case a potato became impacted in the 

 colon (' Edinburgh Veterinary Eeview,' vol. iv, p. 212) ; 

 in another, a tumour of a non-malignant character was 

 found in the duodenum ('Veterinarian,' vol. xxii, p. 617). 



Calculi in the intestines are neither large, solid, nor 

 frequent. They consist of concentric layers, and are found 

 in the large intestine ; they are neither so large nor so 

 prejudicial as those of the horse. 



Intussusception, or Invagination, is the folding of one 

 portion of intestine within the canal of a preceding or suc- 

 ceeding portion, the result of simultaneous distension of 

 the investing, and spasm of the enclosed portion with irre- 

 gular or suddenly reversed peristaltic action. It is rare 



