SURGICAL TREATMENT OF COLICS 67 



ing as the causes and conditions of the patient chance to 

 operate. 



An old subject or one systemically weak from con- 

 tinued hard work that has suffered two or three hours 

 from an overloaded stomach if suddenly relieved will 

 often begin to show symptoms of collapse from one-half 

 hour to six hours after the operation. The weakened 

 viscera, overcome by the prolonged stretching, take more 

 than their share of the blood volume and this at the ex- 

 pense of the periphery. The result is shock; but this 

 may very frequently be prevented by injecting large vol- 

 umes of hot water into the stomach after the harmful 

 contents have been removed. The sudden relief of a 

 badly overwhelmed abdomen is a hazard at all times 

 when this precautionary treatment is omitted. 



Laminitis is of course always liable to follow such a 

 disorder and while cathetrization of the stomach does not 

 always prevent it we have found that the instillation of 

 alum, five ounces in solution, as a parting step of the 

 operation is markedly preventive. In our practice 

 stomach cathetrization has even been charged with caus- 

 ing laminitis, but the reason we had so many cases at 

 first is due to the fact that before we practiced stomach 

 cathetrization these bad cases died before laminitis could 

 develop. When we began to prolong the life of these 

 otherwise fatal cases we found that some of them fell 

 victims to this complication. Now alum has come to 

 our rescue. 



Alum for laminitis was first given, to my knov^ledge, 

 by Doctor Douglas, of New Orleans. Since he an- 

 nounced this remedy several years ago it has come into 



