LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
519 
tion are nearly the same as those which produce it in the stomach, 
and which I have enumerated before, but the most common are, 
eating green food to satiety; if wet the danger is greater, and if wet 
with white frost, most dangerous of all, all kinds of new corn, from 
their greater tendency to fermentation, or new hay, or large masses 
of indigestible matter of any kind, which has been imperfectly 
chymified, from a defective state of the stomach. If the horse be at- 
tacked in the stable, he ceases to eat, and seems to feel a disgust for 
all species of food and drink, the head is lowered and occasionally 
thrown from side to side ; if he is at work he becomes suddenly 
heavy and idle, or works with more precipitation than usual, he 
stops, scrapes with his fore feet, and makes some contortions, and 
strives to lie down, consents to continue his journey only when 
excited by the voice and whip of his driver ; he does not go far 
before he stops again, looks at his belly and groans, strikes at it 
with his hind feet, lowers the head and neck, and makes another 
effort to lie down, in despite of whip or voice. 
His driver, however, will now find it necessary to get him into 
the stable, or the establishment of a veterinary surgeon, with as 
little delay as possible ; very soon the disease becomes aggravated, 
the paroxysms of pain become more frequent and violent, the 
horse is out of breath, and covered with sweat, he lies down and 
rolls from side to side, the pulse as yet not much disturbed, except 
during the paroxysms, the belly is swollen, the nostrils are 
distended and the whole frame seems to quiver with agitation; later 
on he sustains himself with more difficulty, spreads his legs to sup- 
port himself upright, and will often be found to lean against the 
wall for support. He now lies down with more caution, he dreads 
the danger in doing so, he often stretches himself, and makes vain 
efforts to dung and to urinate, feels a desire to vomit, manifested by 
the elongation of the head and neck, he frequently belches up gas, 
which is sometimes accompanied with liquids, mixed with particles 
of food, which escape by the nose and mouth. The swelling of the 
belly now augments with fearful rapidity, the right flank becomes 
elevated, the countenance expressive of the most intense suffering, 
the pulse is nearly imperceptible, he is now nearly insensible to 
everything that is round him, and to everything that you do to him, 
except, perhaps, that he will refuse to take any draught with all the 
energy with which he is still capable. The anus, forced out by the 
intestines, forms a sort of soft tumour which elevates the tail. The 
skin is now covered with a cold sweat, and the pulse completely 
gone ; the air can scarcely penetrate the respiratory organs, the 
blood circulates with difficulty in the vessels, asphyxia becomes 
imminent, the animal staggers and may fall heavily ; sometimes he is 
relieved by sitting on his quarters like a dog, but this relief is decep- 
tive, it is the result of rupture of the stomach, intestines, or diaphragm, 
allowing displacement of gas. A moment after he becomes coma- 
tose, there is no further relief for him, his vital energy is 
exhausted, and he dies. 
I now come to the treatment of the various forms of digestive 
