558 CONTRIBUTIONS TO VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
appears hardly fair to expect so much from the horse, con¬ 
sidering his nervous organisation and position in the animated 
scale. 
I was surprised to see, from the Editor’s quotation of 
Professor Coleman’s Lectures, the opinion the latter gentle¬ 
man entertained of tartar emetic. It is a medicament 
generally, I believe, held in high esteem. Yet, for my own 
part, I have never been able to trace the slightest good to its 
agency, and I finally abandoned it as useless. Mr. Gamgee’s 
own experiments would not seem to recommend it. In 
regard to the deductions to be drawn from these very 
meritorious experiments, it appears to me, more reasonable to 
conclude that tartar emetic has little or no influence on the 
horse rather than that the horse rarely vomits, because tartar 
emetic does not make him do so. Goats will consume 
tobacco, sufficient in quantity to poison many horses, without 
inconvenience. We may by and bye find out something 
possessing the power of making the horse vomit; yet I do 
not myself see the necessity for the horse possessing the 
power of vomition to the same extent as some other animals 
do, his habits, structure, &c. considered. The Editor’s ex¬ 
planation seems to me to be the most conclusive one we 
possess at present, apparently hinting at a reversed action of 
the stomach. Thus in health the cardia is closed, the 
pylorus open; in disease the cardia is open and the pylorus 
closed. It being natural for one of them to be closed, it is 
only having the power of selection under the guidance of the 
proper power. It is pretty clear, unless we have pyloric obstruc¬ 
tion in some way , ive cannot have vomition , and also, that, when 
it becomes necessary, the obstruction sometimes takes place. 
A portion of the phenomena ascribed in M. Sanson’s case 
is rather singular, differing from what I observed in my own 
case, viz., that the head and neck were protruded. Now, in 
the case which I saw, the neck was arched and the head 
drawn in. On asking Mr. Hartley to describe the positions 
assumed by the head and neck in the mare he so frequently 
saw vomit, he gave the same exactly as those I have 
described. 
Mr. Hurford will accept my thanks for his hint regarding 
camphor . I cannot say positively that counter-irritation 
does good in the disease; indeed, in the case of the colt I 
described, it certainly did harm The disease seems to be 
accompanied by conditions rendering it an exception to the 
generally good rule of counter-irritations. We need all the 
light we can get on the matter. 
