672 ON THE ANALOGY BETWEEN THE GRIPES 
ing from labour at the time of its application, and thus doubling 
the chill. The magnitude of the intestines of the horse—the pro¬ 
digious mass they would contain of vegetable food, least liable of 
any to digestion—the thin membranes composing them, rendered 
them quite unequal to the task of carrying on the digestive pro¬ 
cess under such untoward circumstances; and digestion ceasing, 
and the disorder once begun, lead to others producing active in¬ 
flammation in the mucous membrane, brain affections, &c. 
Now what have been said most to produce this cholera was the 
eating of cucumbers, and melons, and unripe fruits, and hard 
meats;—and why ? Because these are amongst the most difficult 
of the vegetable tribes of digestion, and, refusing digestion, they 
become poisonous, and so do they act in producing tormina, 
wreathing and knotting of the abdomen; and from whence the 
ancients called it strophos —from the verb strepho, to turn, twist, 
or writhe about. And may we not also readily account for the 
extraordinary coldness of the tongue, so often noticed, on these 
principles—from the chilled and rigid state of the stomach and 
the total absence of digestive power, the blood then retiring to 
other parts of the body ? 
In respect to the cure, which all will be desirous to know, it 
consists only in well known remedies ; but their operation is ren¬ 
dered more effectual by understanding the nature of the disease 
and the point to be obtained—viz. the restoration of the digestive 
f unctions , at all events ; for before I found this, I rested when the 
remedy had been given, nor knew what to do if it did not succeed 
or take effect, the practice being almost purely empirical; but if 
the train of operations in the stomach and bowels were not restored 
at one dose, I aided it by a repetition, regardless of the terrors 
about inflammation, a bugbear which former idle apprehensions 
had filled me with, by other measures also nearly as potent, and 
pursued it without delay with a second, a third, or a fourth or 
fifth, till I saw the healthy actions return, or a recommencement 
of the digestive process; which being sustained by prudent mea¬ 
sures, the case did well. If inflammation had begun, some slight 
after-treatment might be necessary. 
With the horses, I led them to a warm place, shut all the doors 
and windows, covered them with rugs, threw down straw for them 
to roll upon, and gave them successive doses of the tincture of Pi¬ 
mento— about a quarter of a pint at a dose, waiting half or three 
quarters of an hour between every dose. Getting my hands under 
the ruo’s, I rubbed the abdomen with flannel; and sometimes, 
with all this it took seven hours, in very bad cases, to restore the 
digestive process, but many a one supposed to be dead recovered ; 
for the relief is so great and soothing to them after the excruci- 
