i84 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



queen performed these experiments. Their practical 

 utility can only be judged of by what has transpired. 

 So far as I am able to trace, no successful removal of an 

 obstruction with the complete recovery of the patient 

 has since been placed on record. Either the present-day 

 veterinary surgeon, in spite of Professor Macqueen's 

 able assurance of success, is not possessed of the bold- 

 ness of the old-time Felizet, or he has deemed the 

 operation not exactly ' impossible,' but ' inadvisable.' 

 1 am loth to put the paucity of recorded cases dovk^n 

 to apathy and want of boldness, and can only conclude 

 that the veterinarian has not seen it practicable to put the 

 operation into every-day use. 



The man who first diagnoses a suitable case, after- 

 wards operates in good time, and is rewarded by the sub- 

 sequent recovery of his patient, will have to be possessed 

 of an amount of foresight and will-power far beyond the 

 ordinary. 



In the first place, he will have to be able to decide 

 quickly that the obstruction he is dealing with is not 

 likely to surrender to milder measures — surely a difficult 

 task. Again, he must be convinced that the percentage 

 of deaths from obstruction of the single colon is heavy 

 enough to warrant the operation being immediately 

 advised in each and every case that is diagnosed. The 

 equine patient does not live long enough with obstruction 

 to allow of any delay, no matter how short. Untoward 

 conditions in the bowel soon make their appearance, and 

 place its wall in an unfit state for surgical interference. 

 If the veterinarian waits until the symptoms frighten 

 him into the operation, he has waited too long. Coupling 

 this need for immediate decision with the fact that nearly 

 all veterinary operations must be regulated by strictly 

 economic principles, it is not surprising to learn that 



