634 
OBSERVATIONS ON COLIC. 
was restored, and Nature was evidently struggling to relieve the 
system. This probably might have been accomplished; but an 
erroneous wish to benefit the animal induced the stable-man to feed 
it, and from that time the symptoms became aggravated. The 
strength could not endure the additional burthen cast upon the en- 
feebled organ, and the motion, though only a walk of five hundred 
yards, induced such excitement that the life was lost. Collapse, 
which the most powerful medicines could not combat, was provoked ; 
and death ensued rather from oppression than from actual disease. 
Inflammation had commenced, and under that there is much reason 
to believe, considering the weak condition of the horse, the animal 
would ultimately have perished ; but there is no reason to imagine 
it was the cause of death, which I attribute to a sudden sinking of 
vital power consequent upon sympathy of the more important func- 
tions with the oppression of the digestive organs. 
The speedy termination, and the peculiarity of the symptoms 
altogether, render this case extraordinary. I am not aware that any 
of a like nature have been reported ; but I cannot believe that they 
are so rare as never to have been observed. To the eccentricities 
of gastric disorders veterinarians have paid too little attention. 
We speak of indigestion, stomach staggers, and gastritis, but to 
the multifarious possibilities of indigestion we give no notice. The 
treatment, even for accidental varieties of gastric derangement, is 
not laid down, and no discussion has been held concerning the 
measures that ought to be pursued. I know not in what degree 
I might have altered my treatment, had I been aware of the condi- 
tion of the stomach during life ; but, at all events, I am assured that 
where impactment of the intestines can be by examination per 
rectum ascertained, rest and total abstinence from solids should be 
enjoined ; since, when one portion of the digestive track can be 
dormant, there is cause to more than suspect other parts are in a 
similar condition. By keeping away food the stomach has an op- 
portunity not only of getting rid of an oppressive load, but also of 
recovering the tone which distention had destroyed. 
One symptom, from the observation I have given to these cases — 
gastric disorders having engrossed much of my attention — I have 
found characteristic of the overloaded condition of the stomach. 
Considering that the horse is unable to relieve itself by vomition, it 
is of the utmost importance we should have something like a clue 
to a state of repletion, which abstinence only can be employed to 
remedy. The pulse, when colic is combined with indigestion, is 
always, in my opinion, oppressed ; often feeble, and sometimes en- 
tirely lost : it is never full, sharp, or hard. The pain accompanying 
gastric disease is seldom acute, and rarely presents those periods of 
