150 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



9. Nephritis is very clearly indicated by the presence of epithelial 

 cells, leucocytes, and red corpuscles in the urine ; also of granular 

 and hyaline casts, and of more or less albumin. Moreover, 

 nephritic colics are dull, slightly intense ; the symptoms are often 

 only an exaggeration of the sensibility of the lumbo-renal region 

 and stiffness of the gait. 



10. Acute hepatitis, extremely rare in the horse, is ordinarily 

 accompanied by a certain anxiety and slight colic, due undoubtedly 

 to phlegmasia of the peritoneal covering of the liver. The diag- 

 nosis of this affection is only possible in cases where icteric compli- 

 cation exists. 



11. Intestinal catarrh, enteritis, and ulcerations give rise to "in- 

 flammatory colics'^ which are often difficult to diagnosticate from 

 true colic. In intestinal catarrh the abdominal pains constitute 

 only a secondary phenomenon ; the predominating symptom is 

 diarrhea. The duration of the affection and the knowledge of its 

 cause (ingestion of acrid toxic substances, etc.) are the most useful 

 data for establishing the diagnosis. Often the intensity of the fever, 

 the abundance and persistence of the diarrhea, which at times is 

 bloody, and also the retraction of the abdomen, enable us to dis- 

 pense with everything relating to past conditions. Ulcerations of 

 the stomach or of the intestine are very hard to recognize ; they are 

 distinguished from true colic by their chronic course and by the 

 repeated hemorrhages which they produce. 



12. Certain febrile diseases are accompanied by pains (and often 

 they are quite acute) which may be taken for true colic on a super- 

 ficial examination ; such are encephalitis, pleurisy, pneumonia, 

 petechial fever, typhoid fever, founder, arthritis, and more rarely 

 thrombosis of the branches of the posterior aorta. It is sufficient 

 to recognize the possibility of these errors in order to avoid them. 



Pathological anatomy. The alterations determined by colics 

 vary with the nature of the causes which have produced them. 

 According to one of Bollinger's statistics, 50 to 60 per cent, of the 

 fatal cases of colic are due to modified relations or to mechanical 

 obstructions, and 40 to 50 per cent, are caused by inflammatory 

 affections of the intestine or peritoneum. 



Concerning the frequency of volvulus observed upon the different 

 portions of the intestinal canal, the indicated figures are far from 

 agreeing. According to the statistics of the Munich and Berlin 

 schools, the change of relations of the colon would be more frequent 



