REVIEW. 
Quid sit pulchrura, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non.—H or. 
An Inquiry into the Reasons why the Horse rarely Vomits. 
By Joseph Sampson Gamgee, Esq., Student in Medicine in 
University College, London. 
[From the “ London Journal of Medicine.”] 
This subject has, within the last two centuries, engaged the 
attention of numerous physiologists, the object of whose in¬ 
quiries, however, has differed somewhat from ours; for the 
majority of them have been imbued with the prevalent opinion 
that the horse NEVER vomits. Thus Lamorier addressed to the 
French Academy of Sciences Une Memoir^ ou Von donne les 
Raisons pourquoi les Chevanx ne vomissent point; and M. 
Flourens recently published a paper on non-vomiting in the 
horse, heading it with the following dogma, “Le Cheval ne 
vomit point; cest Id ce que chacun sait.” 
Were it not that M. Flourens is one of the most recent, as 
well as most renowned, writers on the subject, we should not 
deem it necessary to contradict this statement, because it has 
long been known that horses occasionally, though rarely, do 
vomit. True it is, that, since as a general proposition we can¬ 
not assert that the horse does vomit, it might be supposed that 
the converse statement would hold good ; and so it does; but 
only in a sense that is too vague to warrant its being adopted as 
the title of a vexed scientific question. 
In the pursuit of our inquiry, under present circumstances, it 
being indispensable that we should clear the path from error 
before we can hope successfully to attain the truth, we shall, 
firstly, quote cases of horses having vomited; secondly, analyse 
the opinions which, at various periods, have been propounded 
on this subject; and, thirdly, adduce reasons to prove why 
vomiting in the horse is of rare occurrence. 
I. Cases of Vomiting in the Horse. In relating the 
history of a horse affected with spasmodic colic, M. Chariot 
makes the following statement: “ Speedily, and before me, the 
animal gathered together its limbs, made an effort, by contract¬ 
ing the abdominal muscles, opened its mouth, and ejected, by 
the nostrils, a thick, bloody, foetid liquid, of acid taste, and 
mingled with fragments of forage. The act of vomiting was 
repeated in less than half an hour. It gave rise to the evacu¬ 
ation of about two pints of liquid, which had been previously . 
