SPASMODIC COLIC. 
37 
spas, to draw ; an irregular, violent, and involuntary drawing 
or contraction of muscles). The two latter may be said to 
define the malady in a precise, satisfactory, and scientific 
manner. 
Cases of colic usually occur in horses engaged in hard 
work, as cart horses, heavy draught horses, and coach horses ; 
while, on the contrary, those animals which are well fed, well 
groomed, well stabled, and well cared for, very rarely become 
affected with it. Now and then, however, we are called in 
to attend a case of this description, and we generally find it 
is the result of some oversight in the usual routine of the 
stable. We ought to impress this fact on the owners, as it 
would, doubtless, tend to inculcate a better system as far as 
regards their stable management. 
The causes which give rise to this affection are as various 
as the names by which it is known. Cold water given when 
the animal is heated is one of the commonest. Certain 
streams or ponds seem to possess per se the power of pro- 
ducing it. As an illustration, the water on one farm, either 
well or pond water, produces it; the farmer informed me 
that he had lost twelve horses within the last four years. 
Another farmer has a stream running at the back of the 
stable, and if the horses drink any of it a case of colic, and 
a very rapid and fatal one, is sure to result from it. Indeed, 
in both instances, they seem to have a tendency to run 
rapidly to a fatal termination. But if the water on either 
of these farms is allowed to remain in tanks for, say twelve 
or twenty-four hours, the water can then be given with im- 
punity. Hard water, too, is a frequent source of it. 
If when a horse is heated and exposed to the cold air to 
dry him, or cold water is suffused over him, he is liable to 
be seized. Green meat, too, which at certain seasons of the 
year may be said to be the greatest renovator of the horse, 
is liable to produce it. Cases, too, occur after the exhibition 
of a powerful dose of physic. Again, some animals, from 
the peculiarity of their systems, seem predisposed to it ; and 
it usually happens that after a succession of attacks one 
more severe terminates his existence. Anything which has 
an irritating effect, either on the stomach or intestines, is 
liable to produce it, as crib-biting, calculous concretions, 
worms, &c. &c. Another cause is placing the animal in a 
stall, and keeping him tied up without any exercise. This, 
too, will be a fatal case. If worms exist in any great numbers, 
be they tapeworms (taenia perfoliata), or the long round 
ones (ascaris lumbricoides), death is almost certain to 
follow. 
