ENTERITIS. 169 
danger is readily avoided; because the ears, the eyes, and nostrils of 
the horse express its intentions before these are carried into effect. 
THE TEST OF PRESSURE TO THE ABDOMEN FOR ENTERITIS. 
All the tests will, however, not warrant certainty. The heat and dry- 
ness of the mouth may proceed from bodily exhaustion; the pulse, 
though highly suspicious, may merely denote general disturbance rather 
than declare the particular locality of a disorder. The peculiarity of 
the breathing may only express temporary faintness; the resistance to 
pressure is common to many horses while in health, and the restrained 
method of the plunges may be consequent upon the absence of any in- 
citive to greater energy; still, when all are put together, they imply a 
great deal. Faintness and exhaustion are not to be reconciled with a 
hard pulse; the heat of the mouth and the resistance to pressure, espe- 
cially when united to the voluntary restraint 
imposed upon the motion, certainly warrant 
a strong inference, and sanction no belief 
that colic is the sufferer’s complaint. Hap- 
pily, however, there remains a mode of 
assuring the most: hesitating individual. 
The coat must be pulled off, the shirt- 
sleeves rolled up, and the arm be well 
greased or thoroughly soaped. About this 
there must be no false delicacy: in human 
surgery and in veterinary practice many 
things have to be surmounted which do not 
read well when described in cold print. In 
this instance, the intention is to relieve a suffering life; the motive will 
elevate the act. The fingers of the right hand are to be compressed, 
while the left hand raises the tail; the position is on the left side, as near 
A CERTAIN TEST FOR ENTERITIS. 
