APPENDIX 361 



obstruction, the most common cause of all being that 

 of twist or serious displacement of the double colon. 



Once that point was proved, I was open again to 

 include in my list of remedies any aperient that could 

 be safely used in conjunction with what was to me the 

 major portion of the treatment. Always I had seen that 

 the administration of the linseed oil, although successful, 

 was 'inconvenient,' and not infrequently attended with 

 difficulty, as, for instance, in an animal awkward to 

 drench. I thereupon determined to give aloes a further 

 trial, if only on account of the greater ease with which 

 it might be administered. 



Seeing that I had proved to myself I could dispense 

 with any aperient at all, and that without serious 

 prejudice to the patient I was treating, I resolved to 

 commence with quite small doses. Accordingly, I 

 started with a dose which many in the habit of pre- 

 scribing aloes regularly would deem absurd. Gradually 

 I raised it, however, until I arrived at the maximum 

 dose which I found could be administered simultaneously 

 with full doses of stimulants. 



This dose I found for a gross, heavy cart animal, 

 suflfering from impaction, to be six drachms. For a nag 

 in the same condition, I found five drachms to be equally 

 sufficient. These doses, although acting freely at times, 

 do not always create that excessive evacuation the 

 average stableman likes to see. They prove amply 

 sufficient, however, to favourably influence a case of 

 obstruction, and that with safety. 



We may sum up, then, as follows : In dealing with 

 intestinal impaction in the horse, the stimulant treatment 

 {■which excludes the tise of any sedative whatever) is not only 

 logical in theory, but bears the test of actual practice. 

 At the same time there should be exhibited an aperient, 



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