A FEW REMARKS ON COLICKY COMPLAINTS. 
621 
purpose of clearing the rectum, but also to ascertain what is the 
condition of the intestines, and, in constipation more particularly, 
the cause of obstruction. Some veterinarians, I am well aware, 
consider the operation a very undignified one, and if possible on 
their parts to be dispensed with. My reply is, soap and water 
are specifics ; and were the trouble and annoyance a thousand-fold 
greater, it is worth while to perform it for the sake of the aid and 
benefit it confers. 
Symptoms of colic are either primary or secondary, i. e., the 
result of pure spasm of the muscular coat of the intestines, or both 
the symptoms and the spasm, the result of some more serious dis- 
ease. Examination per rectum will do much to determine this 
point, and it is an important one ; and if constipation in addition 
appears as a prominent symptom, it will also throw great light on 
its cause, as, for instance, whether it be the result of spasm, of 
pendulous tumours, strangulated intestine, &c. Negative symp- 
toms are useful, and these will be found, in the absence of all these 
causes. A knowledge of the state of the mucous membrane is use- 
ful, viz., wet or dry. The latter state I have found a common 
accompaniment of obstinate constipation, and the faeces, in such 
cases, generally partook of the same character, being dry, hard, 
and in round balls. This kind of constipation, I am inclined to 
think, frequently results from the intestinal secretion becoming sup- 
pressed. Another kind of constipation, having likewise colicky 
pains for prominent symptoms, results from over-loaded intestines ; 
but the pain is less intermittent, and more severe when it does 
come on ; and where the great intestines are the seat, they fre- 
quently lie quite back in the pelvis, and their weight upon the 
bladder occasions frequent and painful micturition : the great in- 
testines seem to be those most peculiarly obnoxious to this form of 
constipation. By passing the hand up the rectum, you will be able 
pretty accurately to define the seat and extent of the mischief ; 
the bowel also, on being pressed with the point of the finger, will 
remain pitted. You may thus satisfy yourself of the degree of 
impaction, and also pretty accurately of its nature. It is hopeless 
to expect recovery from such a case by the aid of medicine alone ; 
mechanical means are of more service. The patient must be made 
thirsty, and induced to drink great quantities of tepid water, and 
walked about, for half an hour at a time, very frequently : pain 
must be met with antispasmodics, &c. Venesection is indispen- 
sable, but it must be most judiciously managed : we must lay our 
account with such a patient being ill for a fortnight, perhaps longer; 
and if the strength sinks in the mean time the animal will, in all 
probability, die, for the disease will outlive him. To estimate 
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