ON ENTERITIS. 
149 
What said Mr. Spooner on the subject ? ** It is much to be de¬ 
plored, that we have not yet attained this knowledge of our art.” 
I fear but few are able positively to say where there is invagina¬ 
tion or strangulation—it can be but supposition at most. I have 
seen seven or eight cases of introsusception and strangulation, 
and never yet could be positive on the matter; indeed, in one 
case, and which I sent to you {vide Veterinarin, vol. viii, 
p. 380), there was no pain evinced to indicate it in the least. 
The President, Mr. Sewell, observed, that the presence of en¬ 
teritis and amount of inflammatory action may often be detected 
by the degree of heat felt as the hand passes over the external 
part of the abdomen.” It may be so, but I doubt it. 
There is one remark of Mr. H.’s that I am rather surprised at, 
and which is, “ that in colic there is seldom acceleration of the 
pulse.” Now, every one must know this to be contrary to all ex¬ 
perience ; and I shall therefore pass it over. I have now and then 
been puzzled with the state of the pulse in connexion with other 
symptoms ; but a knowledge of its variety is of the greatest con¬ 
sequence, and will seldom, if ever, mislead. 
Another error Mr. H. has fallen into, and it is, that in colic the 
horse seldom lies on his back, and that in enteritis he invariably 
does. Now, on this subject I again perfectly agree with Mr. 
Spooner, that the contrary is the fact. I have seen horses often 
roll on their backs in enteritis, but not nearly so frequently as in 
colic; and this disposition has continued in the former disease, 
more or less, until the horse had no longer sufficient strength to 
put himself in this position. I consider the pain far more severe 
in colic than in enteritis: in the former the spasms are more 
violent, and in the latter, although very severe, the patients seem 
more to bear up against it. 
It was remarked by Mr. Spooner and others, that the horse 
often sits upon his haunches when there is rupture of the dia¬ 
phragm and protrusion of the intestines into the chest; and the 
same symptom, Mr. H. says, takes place when there is strangu¬ 
lation, or rupture, or displacement of intestines. I well recollect 
several instances where this symptom was present. In one, the 
horse had been very hard run from Liverpool, and about the 
country, in consequence of the owner (a native here) having fallen 
from the pier head and being killed (you can sympathize here, 
Mr. Y. !), and the horse was under my care for nearly a day be¬ 
fore he died ; but I am sure this symptom was not present, al¬ 
though there was a rupture fifteen or sixteen inches long in the 
diaphragm, and nothing else the matter with him. 
Another case of rupture of the diaphragm I sent to The Ve¬ 
terinarian, vol. vi, p. 106, and wheic this syin|Honi was also 
