DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS. 187 
Aistory oy the Case.—The horse had performed his usual daily 
labor, without any fault-finding on the part of his driver, when, 
all at once, he commenced to bloat, appeared uneasy, and, by 
his actions, demonstrated very conclusively that he needed some 
assistance. On examination, I found that the abdomen was dis- 
tended to its utmost capacity. The walls of the abdomen were 
rigid as a plank, and the respirations, in consequence of the great 
pressure on the diaphragm and lungs, were very laborious and 
muct accelerated, amounting to about one hundred per minute. 
The pulse was thready and indistinct; the tongue, livid; eyes, 
glassy and protruding; surface of the body, bedewed with a cold, 
clammy perspiration ; paralysis ot the optic nerve had set in, and 
the animal was “blind as a bat;” in fact, he was dead to all in- 
tents and purposes. This was not the worst feature of the case. 
He was continually vomiting from both nostrils, and, as the story 
goes, “a horse that vomits surely dies.” Occasionally the animal 
would fall on the ground with violence, and then assume a vari- 
ety of positions, in view of finding some relief, but, alas! to no 
purpose. His agony was intense, and there seemed to be no re- 
lief for him, unless by a surgical operation. Medicine was out 
of the question ; the animal had lost the power of swallowing, and 
an attempt to administer a drench would have choked him to 
death; so I selected the most salient or tympanitic spot on the 
left flank, and then sent a trocar and canula through the walls of 
the abdomen into the large intestine. So soon as I had withdrawn 
the trocar, the gas escaped very rapidly through the tube, making 
a noise like a steam-whistle. The animal obtained almost imme- 
Hate relief, and the bad symptoms rapidly subsided, so that I was 
enabled to give a colic drench. This operated to prevent fer- 
mentation, and gave tone to the digestive organs. Two subse- 
quent drenches, of four ounces each, were given, and at the end 
of twenty-four hours the animal was taken home. The slight 
wound made through the walls of the abdomen into the intestine 
nealed readily, so that I had no trouble with that; and, to con- 
tlude, I would inform the reader that puncture of the intestine ig 
the only rational plan of treatment in a case of this character. 
Colic drench is made up of the following ingredients: 
No. 21. Fluid extrac, of ginger.........005 coos 2 OM 
Fluid extracs of golden seal....... tenes 2 on. 
Hyposulphite of soda....... y Bareiieleeo/eH 1 os. 
