164 ? SCOTTISH METROPOLITAN VETERINARY MEDICAL SOCIETY. 
Again, there are some diseases of the bones with which we are not 
too well acquainted, diseases affecting the whole osseous system 
more or less (osteo-sarcoma, perosis, and such like), in which 
tumours form and the bones change in structure and character, be- 
coming soft, spongy, and flexible, or hard, porous and brittle. I 
have had several of such cases among horses ; they are not so easily 
detected as one would suppose. But let us now turn to — 
Diseases of the Digestive Organs . — These I need scarcely say are 
numerous and highly important. Frequent, sudden, often severe 
and fatal, their treatment constitutes a large part of our practice, 
and they are not always our most pleasant cases. It has been said 
that these are the diseases we best understand, and treat with the 
best average success. This may be true, yet on looking back with 
pleasure on the cases of colic, tympanitis, constipation, diarrhoea, 
of hooven fardel bound, &c., we have treated successfully, how many 
deaths have we had from some of these causes, from enteritis, peri- 
tonitis, rupture, strangulation, and calculi. With the more simple 
forms of spasmodic and flatulent colic we have but little trouble, 
enteritis in its milder forms, or at its commencement, we may 
check ; but when a severe confirmed case of acute inflammation of 
the bowels occurs, death is almost always the result. Many of us, 
I fear, give up the case at once as hopeless, prescribe the medicines 
and use the means which experience has taught us are but of little 
service, and are thankful when death puts an end to the scene. 
The agony which the poor brute suffers is fearful, and I have often 
thought how desirable it is that we should have some other agent, 
some other combination, it may be, of laxatives and anodynes ; 
something which, without creating much expense, if it did not cure 
would at least render the animal insensible to its sufferings. Cases 
of constipation also, both in horses and cattle, often cause us great 
anxiety. I for one confess that I have often been puzzled to know 
what to do with them. With some, strong and repeated doses of 
purgatives and stimulants seem to answer best ; while with others 
any approach to those, after a certain stage, only retards the peri- 
staltic action, lowers the strength, and cuts off the hope of recovery. 
The road to success seems to lie between the two extremes, and is 
not easily followed. Much unnecessary diversity of opinion exists 
on this subject; were we at one of our meetings, to ventilate and 
discuss it in all its details, and come to some practical conclusion 
as to the best measures for the removal of constipation, I think we 
would do good service; though the subject be commonplace there 
are few more important. Of other diseases of the stomach and 
bowels we need say little. The cause of and remedy for grass- 
staggers in the horse we know, though with some varieties in cattle 
we cannot boast of such successful results ; rupture, strangulation, 
intusussception, tumours in the mesentery, and such like are beyond 
our reach. Hernia we understand, and almost every veterinary 
surgeon can tell of severe cases on which he has operated success- 
fully. Of the worms that infest the bowels we don’t know so much 
as we should; this I presume belongs to “one of the fields in the 
