494 



DISEASES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 



often killed, by cruelty or repeated dosing w^th remedies that were 

 not applicable to the case. While it is true a horse may show the 

 symptoms of colic, from a variety of causes, which would mislead 

 the judgment of eVen good practitioners, it is so exceptional as to 

 be scarcely worth referring to here. 



It was stated in another part, by the writer, that he employed 

 a veterinary surgeon of unusual skill and experience to instruct him 

 in his method of treatment for the cure of such diseases as are most 

 common and dangerous to horses in this country, including the 

 prescriptions used by him for the same. 



The first morning, while waiting in the office for the commence- 

 ment of this instruction, the doctor 

 came in hurriedly, saying, "There 

 is a horse here that has the colic ; 

 I wish you to observe his condition 

 carefully ; notice what will be done 

 for him ; in 1 the meantime read ev- 

 ery authority in the library on the 

 causes and symptoms of colie, but 

 dp not read the treatment, as, the 

 treatment given in books is not re- 

 liable, and would only misleadyou." 

 Fig. 813.— First Stages of Spasmodic As directed, I noticed care- 



Colic Somewhat Exaggerated. Mayhew. fully the condition of the case and 

 the effect of the treatment, which was favorable. In the meantime 

 I read up on the subject, and that evening I was given a lecture on 

 colic, when the doctor informed the writer that he had killed hun- 

 dreds of horses before he knew how to treat it' successfully ; and 

 that the treatment given in books, and generally advised, could not 

 be depended upon to cure colic with anything, like certainty ; that 

 even veterinary surgeons of very high standing could not feel any 

 certainty of being able to cure colic ; that it was found especially 

 difficult to cure flatulent colic, or tympanites. " Now," said he, "we 

 can cure every case that comes into this stable, if we can have an 

 opportunity of treating them within a reasonable length of time, or 

 before there is a collapsed condition of the circulation. 



The opportunities for treating colic in the Infirmary were very 

 many. The Erie Canal heads at that place, which necessarily con- 

 centrated a large number of canal horses in the vicinity, which, 

 with those of the city, brought to the Infirmary almost every day a 

 number of horses suffering with colic ; and during my experience 

 there of a year, there was not a single death from thjs cause ; and 



