TORSION OF THE DOUBLE COLON 271 



knitted brows. There is an abnormal wrinkling of the 

 upper eyelid, and with that what appears to be on the 

 part of the animal an agonizing knowledge of something 

 more grave within him than mere acute pain. I have 

 seen the same haggard and despairing look on the faces 

 of animals suddenly disembowelled in accident. 



The fourth symptom, a gradually increasing pallor of 

 the buccal mucous membrane and of the previously-in- 

 jected conjunctiva, is one which, when once he has seen 

 it, the veterinarian will come to recognize as grave in the 

 extreme. It indicates only too plainly the fatal change 

 that is occurring in connection with the blood-supply 

 of the bowel — a point to which I shall refer again in the 

 section on Diagnosis. Accompanying this pallor of the 

 mucous membrane is a peculiar viscid condition of the 

 saliva I find it hard to describe. It lies in strings and 

 sticky smears on the tongue and adjacent parts, and is 

 of so thick a consistence as to suggest scraping as the 

 only means of removing it. The odour of the breath, 

 too, is abominably offensive, and is in itself a sign of 

 grave functional disturbance. 



Unless something unforeseen now occurs (as, for 

 example, the sudden change in position of the resilient 

 tumour in the rectum — a point which I refer to again in 

 Chapter XXII.) the case hastens on to a fatal termina- 

 tion. A gradual filling of the colon and regurgitations 

 of both fluid and gas in the oesophagus make themselves 

 plainly heard, a visible distension of the oesophagus 

 being observable with each eructation. Muscular tre- 

 mors begin to make their appearance. Tympany becomes 

 pronounced. The patchy sweats become more profuse 

 and cold, the pulse grows even more quick and weak, 

 and the breathing more laboured, sobbing, and spas- 

 modic. The animal's gait, from a studied walk, becomes 



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