150 INTESTINAL IRRITATION AND CONSTIPATION. 
never seen any that last more than two or three days, and some- 
times not more than as many hours. 1 should have been better 
able to advise you, if you had given me an account of the medi- 
cines that you have administered, and also what are the sounds 
of the chest when the ear is applied. 
It appears, however, from what you state, that there is either- 
hypertrophy of the heart, or ossification of some part of it, or of 
the aorta, or that the disease is some spasmodic affection, either 
of the heart or diaphragm. If it be either of the first, then I am 
afraid that little good can be done. If it be the latter, I should 
advise, first, a dose of laxative medicine with a mash diet ; and 
when the laxative has operated, I would give daily, for a week, 
a drachm each of opium, camphor, and digitalis, made into a ball 
with linseed-meal and treacle, continuing the mashes. I should 
be glad if, at the end of this time, you would let me know what 
is the result, 
(The horse was perfectly recovered in the course of a fortnight.) 
A CASE OF INTESTINAL IRRITATION AND 
CONSTIPATION. 
By JOHN Tombs, Esq., Pershore, formerly of the East India 
Service. 
I am induced to send the following case to The VETERINARIAN, 
being one of several that I have witnessed lately, on account of its 
similarity to a few others that Mr. Percivall has lately registered 
in the above Journal, and which he considered to be epidemic. I 
am inclined to think that those which I treated were of a similar 
species. 
January 20, 1844, 8 P.M. — I WAS requested to attend a chestnut 
horse by the Colonel, out of a half-bred mare, the property of an 
officer of the Royal Artillery, who had leave of absence, and was 
on a visit to his friends in this neighbourhood. 
I found him lying down, and looking back towards his flanks. 
When made to get up he looked dull and heavy, kicked his 
abdomen with his hind feet, turned his head to his sides, and 
then put himself in a position as though he wanted to stale. I 
was informed that he purged very much in the morning previous 
to hunting in the Broadway country with Earl Fitzhardinge’s 
hounds. When he came home, about 5 P. M., he ate a feed of 
split beans very ravenously, and drank his gruel as usual. 
