io6 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



mencement of the pains until relief is obtained ammonium 

 carbonate may be given at intervals of three hours in 

 I to 2 ounce doses. 



The only modification to be made is when treating a 

 very young cart animal or a nag. In this case the dose 

 of nux vomica should be reduced to half an ounce. 



Should the reader think these doses too large, I would 

 ask him to remember that the results embodied in the 

 writing of this chapter are the outcome of several years' 

 sole practice of the treatment here laid down, and that 

 nothing but the marvellous and striking statistics 

 following its adoption have led me to give to it the 

 prominence I have done in the past few pages. 



To anyone who might feel disposed to adopt it I 

 would offer a few words of caution. If carried out in a 

 half-hearted manner — the doses reduced by one-half to 

 guard against accident, or the administration of eserine 

 deferred until the patient is in a state of collapse — then 

 he may look for nothing but failure. Having diagnosed 

 his case, the veterinarian must be possessed of the 

 courage of his convictions, and be prepared to push them 

 to their ultimate and right conclusion. 



Should he doubt, should he waver, I am able to 

 honestly assure him that I have seen no case in which 

 the apparently excessive doses have proved in any way 

 harmful. On the contrary, after the experience of a long 

 array of cases, I am able to declare the exact opposite to 

 be the fact, and am thereby led to insist so strongly on 

 the correctness of the treatment. In the whole of my 

 practice for certainly the last five or six years I have 

 had no occasion save one to give aloes. That occasion 

 is included in the list of cases at the end of this chapter, 

 and I may say that, even then, I had serious cause to 

 regret its administration. This section on posology is 

 the one I would ask the reader to ponder over most. If 



