254 THE COMMON COLICS OF THE HORSE 



and designed to carry enormous weights of ingesta, with 

 a heavy and unattached end. Devoid of mesenteric or 

 other stay to hold it in position, this heavy end is free to 

 move at will in the abdomen. This must, one would 

 think, lead at times to trouble which could easily be 

 referred to displacement.' 



There can be no doubt that at times it does, and that 

 this cause alone is often a factor determining either tor- 

 sion of the pelvic flexure (see p. 300) or twist, partial or 

 complete, in the neighbourhood of the suprasternal and 

 diaphragmatic flexures. 



The late Professor Walley, in commenting on the ' pre- 

 eminent liability of the colic loop to torsion,' remarks on 

 the fact that it is usually the receptacle of a large quantity 

 of semifluid material, leaving us to infer, for he does not 

 actually say so, that this weighting of the free end is 

 responsible in large measure for its deviation from the 

 normal position. 



This cause may be, and I should say nearly always is, 

 assisted in operation by disordered muscular action of 

 the bowel ; but that point I will deal with later. For the 

 present it will be better to consider further the part 

 played by the build of the bowel itself in determining 

 these displacements. 



In the main this will deal with the see-sawing or rolling 

 of the third portion over the second, or the second portion 

 over the third, according as the twist is from left to right 

 or from right to left, and will be concerned principally 

 with torsion at the suprasternal and diaphragmatic 

 flexures. For the views regarding this, and the way in 

 which the occurrence of torsion in this situation is 

 explained, I am indebted to the work of Cadeac ; and the 

 whole thing may perhaps be rendered more intelligible if 

 we resort to the use of diagrams. 



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