PROCEEDINGS OF THE SCHOOL AT ALFORT. 49 
digested food in the stomach or the intestinal canal ; in others, and 
more rarely, it is owing to the intense irritation produced by en¬ 
tanglement of a portion of the intestine ; but, in the immense majo¬ 
rity, the cause can only be guessed at, the lesions only are certain. 
These consist, when there is nothing but congestion, in a sangui¬ 
neous effusion in the mucus of the small or large intestine, the 
deep red colour of which has often been taken for gangrene. 
When haemorrhage has taken place in the same mucous tissue, 
its colour is of a blackish brown, and its thickness has sometimes 
been found to be nearly an inch, and resembling, when it is cut 
into, a clot of blood. At other times, instead of haemorrhage, we 
find the contents of the intestinal canal mixed with and coloured 
by a red liquid, or even by pure blood. 
According to M. Renault, the haemorrhage in these circum¬ 
stances is never primitive; it is always preceded by congestion, 
and only takes place at the end of a time varying with the ple¬ 
thoric state of the subject, and the greater or less intensity of 
the causes that produced the congestion. 
This knowledge of the progress of this malady is of the highest 
importance: since so long as there is nothing but congestion, the 
blood is still contained in its vessels, which are only distended, 
and it is possible to obtain a cure. But as soon as the haemor¬ 
rhage has commenced, whether through the pores of the vessels 
or by a rupture of their coats, all hope is lost, and death is 
inevitable. It is guided by these powerful considerations that 
M. Renault has adopted for a principle of therapeutics, that, 
whatever be the remote cause of violent colic, the immediate 
cause is almost invariably, or always, a congestion of the intes¬ 
tinal blood; and this liable to become instantly mortal, if re¬ 
course be not had to copious bleeding, and to those powerful de¬ 
rivative means which may lessen the intestinal circulation, divert 
the blood towards the skin, and thus prevent haemorrhage. The 
more acute the sufferings of the animal, the more necessity there 
is for prompt measures; a moment of hesitation, an instant of 
delay, may be attended by the most fatal consequences, since, 
the haemorrhage once begun, the loss of the patient is inevitable, 
and bleeding, far from preventing the fatal termination, only 
serves to hasten it. Copious bleedings are so efficacious, when 
they are promptly made use of, that many and many a time the 
pupils have seen horses tortured by the most violent colic, become 
instantly calm after a loss of blood of eight or ten pounds, and, in 
a few hours, appear in perfect health. At other times, it is not 
until after the second or third bleeding that the colic is relieved. 
We could cite numerous examples of horses cured by this 
treatment, and when the colic appeared a little time after the 
VOL. V. JI 
