CASE OF VOLVULUS ILEI. 
667 
was sent to the Cavalry Barracks, to Mr. Percivall, of the First 
Regiment of Life Guards, to request his advice in the case. Mr. P. 
found the horse expressing great pain, evidently abdominal, and 
yet not of the intermittent character of cholic : neither did it seem 
to him an inflammatory attack, the horse having fed well during 
the night : the sudden accession of pain, and the short duration of 
time that had elapsed, with the state of the pulse, which though 
quick was weak and in nowise thready, made him rather con- 
clude that the symptoms were not those of enteritis or of any other 
“ itis” Mr. P. did not bleed, but ordered an antispasmodic ape- 
rient drink, containing aether and laudanum, and gave directions 
that the same should be repeated if the pain continued. The 
horse also was raked, and had several enemata administered. 
Four hours afterwards Mr. P. was again sent for, the horse 
having experienced no relief, and a full blood-letting was then had 
recourse to, the pail being ta’ken from the neck only when symp- 
toms of syncope appeared. About, xii lbs. of blood had been ab- 
stracted, another drench given, and now a tobacco-smoke enema 
was exhibited; all remedies, however, proving of no avail. In 
four hours after this Mr. P. visited him a third time, and 
found him in as great pain as ever. I had been sent for in the 
interim ; and I only arrived to witness the agony and suffering of 
a noble animal, without being able to suggest any remedy that 
could in the least alleviate such torture. It was distressing to see 
the animal rolling and throwing himself in every posture to give 
the least ease, and, whenever he could do so, to get upon his back. 
When Mr. Percivall left him, he instructed my farrier to give calo- 
mel and opium, and to stimulate the surface of the abdomen ; but I 
was convinced that the case was hopeless, and merely continued the 
opium in the hope that it might mitigate his sufferings. No faeces 
had passed during the day, and, indeed, none since the commence- 
ment of the attack ; and on introducing my hand and arm almost 
up to my shoulder in the rectum, I could feel nothing like faeces 
or obstruction, and the surface of the intestines was cooler than 
usual, and covered with its natural secretion : these circum- 
stances made me conclude that there was an obstruction in some 
part of the intestinal canal. The poor beast lingered without re- 
mission of his symptoms till two o’clock, P.M. on Monday, when 
death put an end to this melancholy case. Had the horse been 
my own property, I should not have hesitated to have destroyed 
him the first time that I visited him. 
Post-mortem, examination . — My convictions proved but too 
true, — the case was one of volvulus. The ileum had got strangely 
and curiously twisted, and was bound down at each turn or twist by 
folds of mesentery, and so complex was the knot, that it was diffi- 
cult after death, and with the parts exposed, to disentangle them ; 
