74 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



horse with a tympanitic stomach to indulge in rolling.' 

 There can be no doubt whatever that the violent strains 

 and falls the frantic animal inflicts upon himself when in 

 the paroxysms of acute gastric tympany are directly 

 accountable for many of our cases of rupture. 



Cases are also on record where rupture of the stomach 

 has been accompanied with, and no doubt preceded by, 

 a thinned and ulcerated condition of the stomach walls, 

 occasioned by the presence of large numbers of bots 

 {Qistrns equi), giving rise, in the first place, to imperfect 

 digestion of food, with its concomitant process of fermen- 

 tation, resulting in tympany and pressure. 



Sometimes a sudden heavy fall is responsible for the 

 lesion. Mr. Broad instances that as follows : ' An aged 

 horse, in a very weak condition, fell while at work, and 

 was with difficulty made to rise. He again fell on 

 reaching a stable close by, and died almost imme- 

 diately. The coats of the stomach were attenuated and 

 ruptured.' 1 



Other and rarer causes of this lesion may be found in 

 the atrophy of the stomach walls produced by the vice of 

 crib-biting, or in the ravages produced by the Spiroptem 

 megastoma? 



I shall not concern myself here with a consideration of 

 the nature and size of the rupture, nor its position or 

 pathological appearances. Our interests will be mainly 

 confined to its relation to colic, and the way in which it 

 affects our diagnosis of the various disorders we are dis- 

 cussing. It is, therefore, from that standpoint that I 

 shall conclude this chapter. 



Symptoms. — I have already indicated that this lesion 



^ Veterinary Journal, vol. ii. , p. 178. 



2 Proceedings of the Fifth General Meeting of the National 

 Veterinary Association (Smith). 



