200 FLATULENT COLIC, ETC. 
tedious journey, and subsequently cramped by days of enforced stagna- 
tion,—all of these things ultimately tell upon the strong body of our 
domesticated quadruped. The stomach, as the earliest evidence of 
general debility, loses its tonicity. It cannot digest a full meal; the 
provender ferments, gas is released, and flatulent colic is the conse- 
quence. 
A traditionary belief in the stable asserts this disorder is provoked 
by crib-biting, wind-sucking, etc. etc. The author is indebted to Mr. 
Ernes, a most successful veterinary surgeon of Dockhead, for the earliest 
comprehension of the impossibility that such causes should operate. 
Let the reader endeavor to swallow air; the mouth being deprived of 
all saliva, the attempt at further deglutition is fruitless; besides, to use 
the words of Mr. Ernes, ‘though the stomach or the bowels do contain 
a small portion of atmospheric air, flatulent colic is generated by car- 
bonie acid or sulphureted hydrogen gas, the products of decomposition ; 
either of which, if respired, destroys vitality.” 
The horse which is to be oppressed by flatulent colie exhibits uneasi- 
ness after feeding; it hangs the head; breathes laboriously; fidgets; 
rocks the body, and rests first on one leg then on the other. These 
A HORSE DYING OF FLATULENT COLIC. 
symptoms are exhibited before any enlargement of the abdomen is to 
be detected. With the swelling of the belly pawing commences; that 
action is, however, far too leisurely displayed to be for an instant con- 
founded with the same energetic movement which characterizes spas- 
modic colic. 
