58 COLICS AND THEIR TREATMENT 



punctures and stomach cathetrization in many instances 

 to determine more accurately the nature of alimentary 

 disorders of an acute character. 



This paper is not designed to be a discourse on diag- 

 nosis, but I can not very well introduce my subject 

 logically without first showing the possibility of locating 

 the seat and cause of abdominal pain with a degree of 

 accuracy that would warrant the recommendation of 

 treatment by instrumentation. A surgical operation is 

 justified only when directed at a definite object and 

 when this object cannot be located accurately then the 

 surgeon must leave the condition in the therapeutist's 

 category. On this account the following remarks deal at 

 some length with the diagnosis of the condition the oper- 

 ation is intended to cure. 



ACUTE PAINFUL DISEASES OF THE 

 STOMACH 



The stomach of animals is subject to the following 

 disorders which cause acute pain: 



1. Overloading of the stomach of work horses. In 

 this country almost universally called "acute indigestion." 



2. Impaction of the stomach. 



3. Acute gastritis. 



4. Acute dilatation of the stomach. 



It will be noticed here that without going beyond the 

 stomach we already find four definite disorders, each of 

 which I shall endeavor to show belongs to the list of 

 surgical diseases. Some of them may yield to medical 

 treatment and when of a mild type may still properly 

 remain in the list of medical diseases, but when they are 

 grave, the aid of the surgeon must be enlisted or the 

 patient will not survive. Let us analyze them separately. 



