OBSERVATIONS ON COLIC. 
633 
to consume during a single night will account for the condition, of 
the larger intestines. These were filled, positively packed tight, 
with faeces. The amount was extraordinary, and, in several places, 
the gut was spasmodically contracted; and had, at these parts, 
pressed the ingesta perfectly dry, so that their contents could be 
strewed about like seed. Where this, however, was witnessed, 
no inflammation was beheld ; and, therefore, the spasm may be 
supposed to have accompanied the last effort of life. Animals, 
when slaughtered, not unfrequently present this appearance of the 
intestines ; and as no symptoms sufficiently acute testified its ex- 
istence long prior to death, I am the more disposed to attribute the 
spasm to the death struggle. The large intestines were one mass 
of impactment, and not merely clogged at certain places. The 
continuance of such a state of parts wmuld induce consequences 
that in their turn would be destructive ; but, of themselves, the 
intestines merely being oppressed, to however great a degree that 
oppression might extend, does not account for the fatal termination 
of the case. 
The stomach alone can afford the explanation I am seeking. It 
must have held what ought to have composed the food of three 
days, at least. ; and it must be remembered that, for the last twenty- 
four hours of its life, there is reason to suppose the horse fed but 
once. Knowing that Nature, having given the horse a diminutive 
stomach, has proportionably quickened its digestive function, the 
accumulated contents of that organ can only be accounted for by 
presuming it had become paralyzed, or so far lost its normal power 
as to be unable to propel the mass which was found within it. 
Against this notion of paralysis the continuance of the appetite 
may, at first sight, appear to be opposed ; but, on reflection, will be 
found rather to support than contradict the supposition. A craving 
for more than can be appropriated is an ordinary symptom of 
gastric disease, and one which is as frequently observed in ani- 
mals as in man, though not so strongly dwelt upon. The appetite, 
therefore, corroborates the idea, while the degree of distention may 
be said to prove its correctness. Had the power of contraction 
been retained, rupture must have ensued. In no case of ruptured 
stomach that I have witnessed has the amount of ingesta been 
comparable to the quantity which I found present in this instance ; 
therefore I conclude, that, from the weakness of convalescence, 
the digestive organs were debilitated in the first instance ; and that 
debility by mistaken treatment was so much increased, that para- 
lysis of the intestines and stomach was established when I first 
saw the horse. 
Under the simple measures at first pursued something like tone 
