GASTRIC TYMPANY 53 



fact that the attack is oftentimes treacherous at the out- 

 set, the mildness of the premonitory symptoms effectually 

 masking all possibility of the fearful, agonizing spasms to 

 follow. 



Percivall, though including both this disorder and 

 intestinal tympany in one description, still manages to 

 steer clear of ambiguity, and leaves his reader fully in- 

 formed that tympany of the stomach, and stomach only, 

 is often to be dealt with in veterinary practice. He says : 

 ' In the horse, however, who has no rumen, veritable hove 

 is a rare occurrence. ... I shall never, probably, see so 

 many blown or hoven^ horses as I witnessed in the march 

 of the British army from Waterloo to Paris in 181 5. A 

 brigade of horses had been allowed to feed in a field of 

 growing wheat, and the consequences were that several 

 amongst them swelled in the body, and turned almost 

 frantic with pain, and died.' 



Other authors have also given excellent descriptions of 

 this disorder. Mr. Henry Thompson, Aspatria, under 

 ' Rupture of Stomach ' beautifully describes a case which 

 had its starting-point in this condition. Here is his 

 description : ' This horse was reported ill about ten 

 o'clock in the morning, and, on examining him, I found 

 that he was apparently suffering irom flatus} . . . Treat- 

 ment was continued, but without any beneficial effect, 

 and early in the afternoon the " eructation " was noticed, 

 the pulse rapidly assumed the " running down " character, 

 great prostration came on, and the horse died about 

 eight o'clock in the evening. From the time when the 

 eructation appeared no medicine was given, as from my 

 experience in former cases I was as certain as it was 

 possible to be that a rupture had occurred. '^ 



' The italics are mine. — H. C. R. 

 '' Veterinary Journal, vol. iii., p. 259. 



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