FLATULENT COLIC. 219 



thirty limos the bulk of the food. This may take place in the 

 stomach ; and if so, the life of the horse is in immediate danger, for, 

 as will plainly appear from the account that has been given of the 

 oesophagus and upper orifice of the stomach, the animal has no pow- 

 er to expel this dangerous flatus (wind) by eructation (belching.) 

 This extrication of gas usually takes place in the colon and 

 caecum, and the distention may he so great as to rupture either 

 the one or the other, or sometimes to produce death, without either 

 rupture or strangulation, and that in the course of from four to 

 twenty-four hours. 



An overloaded stomach is one cause of it, and particularly so 

 when water is given either immediately before or after a plentiful 

 meal, or foou to which the horse has not been accustomed is given. 

 The symptoms, according to Professor Stewart, are, " the horse 

 suddenly slackening his pace — preparing to lie down, or falling 

 down as if he were shot. In the stable he paws the ground with 

 his fore-feet, lies down, rolls, starts up all at once, and throws 

 himself down again with great violence, looking wistfuUy at his 

 flanks, and maiking many finiitless attempts to void his urine." 



Hitherto the symptoms are not much unlike spasmodic colic, 

 but the real character of the disease soon begins to develope it- 

 self. It is in one of the large intestines, and the belly swells all 

 round, but m^ostly on the right flank. As the disease proceeds, the 

 pain becomes more intense, the horse more violent, and at length 

 death closes the scene. 



The treatment is considerably different from that of spasmodic 

 colic. The spirit of pimento would be here allowed, or the tur- 

 pentine and opium drink ; but if the pain, and especially the 

 swelling, do not abate, the gas, which is the cause of it, must be 

 got rid of, or the animal is inevitably lost. 



This is usually, or almost invariably, a combination of hydrogen 

 with some other gas. It has a strong affinity for chlorine. Then 

 if some compound of chlorine — ^the chloride of lime — dissolved in 

 water, is administered in the form of a drink, this gives speedy 

 relief 



Where these two medicines are not at hand, and the danger is 

 imminent, the trochar may be used, in order to open a way for 

 the escape of the gas. The trochar should be small, but longer 

 than that which is used for the cow, and the puncture should be 

 made in the middle of the right flank, for there the large intes- 

 tmes are most easily reached. In such a disease it cannot be ex- 

 pected -that the intestines shall always be found precisely in their 

 natural situations, but usually the origin of the ascending portion 

 of the colon, or the base of the csecum will be pierced. Th" au- 

 tho! of this work, however, deems it his duty to add, that it is only 

 when the practitioner despairs of otherwise saving the Ufe of the 



