154 The Farmer's Veterinary Adviser. 



necessarily classed with a number of others, (inyagination, 

 constriction, etc., of the bowels,) in which there is irreme« 

 diable obstruction, and which end sooner or later in death. 



SPASMODIC COLIC. BELLY-ACHE. 



This terra is loosely used to designate all conditions ia 

 n-hich there is pain in the belly, whether from disease of 

 liver, pancreas, urinary organs, generative apparatus, 

 stomach or bowels, and whether caused by nervous irrita- 

 tion, inflammation, improper position, strangulation or 

 compression by adjacent organs, obstruction by foreign 

 bodies, etc., etc. The present remarks will be confined to 

 that which is more purely nervous and which results from 

 spasmodic contraction (cramps) of the bowels. 



In certain susceptible states of the system a slight indi- 

 gestion, without impaction or tympany, the taking of indi- 

 gestible matters that would have been harmless at another 

 time, a drink of ice-cold water when perspiring and exhaus- 

 ted, a chill rain or dew will cause spasms and the most 

 excruciating agony. 



Symptoms. The attack is sudden, the horse paws, 

 moves uneasily, kicks at the belly, looks at the flanks with 

 anxious countenance, dilated nostrils and glaring eye, 

 crouches with semi-bent limbs for a few seconds and then 

 throws himself down ■(vith a prolonged groan. He rolls, 

 lies on his back, sits on his haunches and may get up, 

 shake himself, take to feeding and appear quite well. 

 Another fit comes on in ten, fifteen, twenty or thirty min- 

 utes, and after each there is a period of freedom from pain, 

 with natural pulse and breathing. This with the reckless 

 manner in which he hes down, and the entire absence of 

 tenderness of the abdomen, or of elevated temperature, 

 serve to distinguish from other bowel diseases, especially 

 inflammation. Each succeeding attack may be less severe 

 until they cease, or they may increase in severity and the 

 disease merge into acute tympanitic indigestion or enteritis. 



In cattle there are similar symptoms with uneasy shift- 



