OBSERVATIONS ON COLIC. 
623 
make up my mind as to the cause ; but it would be awkward to 
prophesy fracture of the spine, and have the patient all right in 
half an hour. 
For such a case, or where an effectual and instantaneous anti- 
spasmodic was required, I know nothing so useful as the anti- 
spasmodic prepared by Mr. Lyon, of Forfar. Administered to a 
horse labouring under colic, and before he has probably swallowed 
half the dose, he begins to pant and blow: every symptom of pain 
vanishes, and he remains free from it afterwards altogether, or for 
a longer or shorter period, according to the cause of the symptoms. 
Its effects are certainly very surprising and powerful ; and had 1 
any by me, I should be happy to send you some, Mr. Editor, as 
well as Mr. Mayhew ; but 1 have no doubt, Mr. Lyon would sup- 
ply any of the profession with as much as they chose, on being 
written to. Although I have used it, I do not know' what it is ; 
most probably some one or other of the vegetable alkalies. 
In reading your case, Mr. Editor, I must adopt your doubt as to 
the advisability of using mercury and opium at once, for the relief 
of obstruction, & c. ; and I am very doubtful that, had they been ex- 
hibited from the first in the present case, they would have failed to 
recover the patient, unaccompanied or unpreceded by your decided 
and judicious stimulant treatment. The case seemed to be one de- 
manding time, and the aid of the biliary secretion ; I infer so from 
the colour and nature of the dung. Perhaps the disease prima- 
rily arose from disorder of the liver. Recovery, I think, might 
possibly have been expedited by venesection at the commence- 
ment, although I have noticed that patients with disordered livers 
do not, in general, bear blood-letting well : in fact, there seems to 
be a decided intolerance of it, most probably on account of the 
deterioration in the quality of the blood. 
I remain, most respectfully, 
Your obliged servant. 
OBSERVATIONS ON COLIC FROM INDIGESTION, 
ILLUSTRATED BY AN EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF 
IMPACTMENT OF STOMACH AND COLON. 
By Edward Mayhew, M.R.C.V.S., 
Spring -street, Wesibourn-terrace. 
I read with much pleasure the case which you narrated in 
The Veterinarian of last month. There were many reasons 
which made me happy to see that history. On looking over my 
paper which appeared in the September Number of your Journal, 
