APPENDIX 355 



oleaginous laxative. In using the sedative there is 

 always the risk of slightly over-estimating the correct 

 dose for the purpose, thereby staying the action of the 

 bowels just a trifle too far, and bringiiig about a case of 

 intestinal tympany from the fermenting ingesta within. 

 Though the tympany called up in this manner can 

 hardly be regarded as serious, it is questionable whether 

 the treatment has been a rational and a scientific one. 

 As the case, then, is just a little open to question, I give 

 the supporters of sedatives the benefit of the doubt, and 

 allow that an anodyne will, in this instance, relieve the 

 pain without doing serious harm. 



Peritonitis is another, though less frequent, form of 

 colic that will benefit by the administration of an anal- 

 gesic. So far I have met with only one or two isolated 

 cases, one of which resulted from the use of the trocar 

 and cannula in a case of intestinal tympany. Even here 

 a sedative, as we generally understand a sedative, is not 

 going to be the most suitable remedy. Aconite, with its 

 powers of rapidly reducing the pulse-beats, lowering the 

 temperature, and lessening the perceptions of pain, will 

 be found the most beneficial. 



We now come to another mention of enteritis, that 

 bogey of the veterinarian, and the cause of certainly 

 more than half of the mistreatment of veterinary colic. 

 When once diagnosed, of course sedatives may be given 

 with a lavish hand in order to deaden the agonizing 

 pains that assuredly herald the animal's speedy death. 

 But that which is diagnosed as enteritis — is it always 

 enteritis ? Those among us of any length of experience, 

 as they call to memory the cases of their earlier days, 

 are bound to admit that it is not. More especially to 

 the young beginner will this hoary-headed misnomer 

 rear his grinning features and rattle his clanking chains. 



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