• COLIC,' ITS DEFINITION 5 



Owing to circumstances which I shall endeavour to 

 explain in a future chapter, one day's illness in the horse 

 is practically of the same length as a week's suffering 

 from the same ailment in man. The veterinarian is com- 

 pelled to crowd into one day a diagnosis and treatment 

 that the human medico may methodically and easily 

 arrive at by a week's careful study of the symptomatology 

 and history furnished by his patient. 



This apparent digression is really a lengthening of the 

 definition ; it is inserted for this reason. I desire to 

 indicate as forcibly as lies within me one fact — 

 human and equine colic in no material way bear likeness 

 one to the other. My excuse for trespassing so far i/nto 

 the domain of human medicine in connection with this 

 point is this : I have so frequently seen veterinarians 

 attempting to base their treatment on knowledge derived 

 from medical literature referring to man. I feel sure 

 that nothing could lead them further from the truth. 



' Colic,' so long as the horse exists, will always have a 

 terrible significance for the practitioner of veterinary 

 medicine. It still continues, in many of its aspects, to 

 baffle the most careful and painstaking observer. It 

 still claims annually many thousands of victims. 

 Anthrax, tuberculosis, and other dire disorders still 

 persist in carrying off their spoils, but it is doubtful to 

 my mind whether any other ailment in the whole 

 category of modern veterinary diseases is accountable 

 for more loss, more anxiety, and more self-scourging than 

 is 'colic' 



