APPENDIX 243 



before published, should lead us to easily understand why 

 it is that pain follows so rapidly on apparently slight 

 stasis of the bowels in the horse. It is this that renders 

 equine colics of such serious importance. It explains in 

 great measure the rapid and oftentimes fatal course 

 they run, and impressively points out the urgent neces- 

 sity for prompt and precise remedial measures. This, 

 more than anything else, should induce the veterinarian 

 to carefully weigh his data before jumping at a diag- 

 nosis. Above all, it should cause him to deliberately, 

 ponder, and perhaps stay his hand, before administering 

 those agents which tend to kill pain, but at the same 

 time tightly lock the bowels. It should cause us to 

 reason that though sedatives may be administered with 

 comparative impunity to man, anything that may tend 

 to stagnate the bowels, which a sedative undoubtedly 

 will, is not to be exhibited with safety to the horse. 



To those who administer sedatives with the humane 

 object of alleviating pain I have only one remark to 

 make. Their first duty is to preserve life, even if in so 

 doing they inflict a little more suffering. 



Then consider the nature of the horse's food. It is 

 such that, if locked for any length of time within the 

 bowels, it quickly gives rise to the formation of gas. In 

 conjunction with that fact reflect that the food so liable 

 to act is present in large quantities, and we see that this 

 formation of gas will be extensive. Anyone who has 

 seen the amount of tympany called up by a dose of opium 

 or morphia will bear me out in that. 



We should next pause for a moment over the question 

 of tympanitic stomach — that condition in which the 

 stomach is abnormally distended with gas that is gaining 

 no outlet from the pylorus. As veterinarians we know, 

 without entering into details, that there is an arrange- 



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