72° 
treatment of enteritis in horses, and should not therefore be administered. 
Hot fomentations by means of woollen rugs wrung out from very hot water, 
should be applied to the belly and renewed every half-hour for five or six 
times, while the pain is very acute, and afterwards every hour or so. During 
the time when the rugs are being renewed, some stimulating liniment may be 
well rubbed in by the attendant, over the belly. Some practitioners prefer 
the application of a poultice of mustard, which is rubbed off in two or three 
hours, and followed up by the application of hot fomentations. Enemas of 
tepid water should be given by means of the ordinary funnel apparatus, but 
on no account is it advisable to use an injecting syringe. 
If the horse is inclined to drink, he may be allowed linseed gruel or 
linseed tea, or thin oatmeal gruel. We do not recommond the use of 
purgatives in enteritis. After the abatement of the acute symptoms, the diet 
should be laxative, consisting of bran-mashes, linseed and oatmeal gruel. 
No hard food should be allowed on any account until all danger is over. 
In some animals in high condition, bleeding is indicated in the early stages. 
Blood, however, should be abstracted in moderation only. It is our practice 
never to remove more than two or three quarts, and never to repeat the 
operation. 
CONSTIPATION AND OBSTRUCTION OF THE BOWELS. 
CONSTIPATION, or torpid action of the bowels, is by no means uncommon in 
.the horse ; but, although it very seldom leads to a fatal result, it nevertheless 
deserves attention and judicious management. It depends upon obstruction 
of the bowels, or upon deficient intestinal action or secretion. The two latter 
are in their turn chiefly due to dietetic errors, though they may also depend 
upon other causes. Generally, the belly is full and distended, but this is. by 
no means a constant symptom. If the constipation continues unrelieved, the 
appetite fails, weakness follows, and the pulse becomes feeble and accelerated. 
In some instances a mucous secretion is discharged in cases of constipation, 
and this is frequently niistaken for diarrhoea by the uninitiated, when, on the 
contrary, it is indicative of a costive condition of the bowels. As long as the 
animal remains in pretty good health, all that is necessary in constipation is 
a moré laxative diet. If the constipation is habitual, a moderate dose of 
aloes, say four or five drachms, followed up by the administration of vegetable 
tonics, such as nux vomica, gentian and others, is efficacious in most instances. 
In some cases irregularity of the bowels depends upon paralysis of part 
of the intestine, and in these cases purgatives cannot be administered. In 
these cases a mixture consisting of liquor strychnine hydrochloratis two 
drachms, and of aromatic spirit of ammonia one ounce, may be given three 
times daily in half a pint of gruel. For the prevention of the recurrence 
of constipation, bran-mashes and other laxative diet may be substituted 
occasionally for the more solid food ; and eight drachm balls made up of equal 
parts of carbonate of ammonium, ginger, and gentian made up with treacle, 
