448 
PERFORATION OF THE COLON. 
little hard, but small; no faeces passed. Laxative medicine, 
with an opiate, was given, and an enema per rectum, which 
was repeated. The next day the horse was purging slightly, 
and he appeared easier. We, as well as the patient, had to 
march the following morning. The abdominal pains varied 
after this. For a day or two he would appear better, and 
eat his food, then suddenly the pains would return, when he 
would lie down, and look round at his flanks. At all times a 
dejected countenance was present, and the pulse always had 
an irritable character. He lost flesh, and the breathing was 
disturbed; the action of the bowels was uncertain, and the 
faeces were frequently mixed with stringy mucus. The 
usual remedies were tried, with counter-irritation to the ab¬ 
domen, and subsequently, on a yellow tinge becoming visible 
in the mucous membranes, calomel and opium were given, 
and the right side blistered. This treatment appeared to 
give relief, and I had great hopes of a perfect recovery up to 
the morning of his death. The pain seemed to be gone, the 
appetite was comparatively good, and the faeces were more 
regular, although the pulse still had a hard, small feel. This 
apparent improvement continued for five days, when the 
syce (native groom) reported one morning that his horse 
would not eat his food, I found on visiting him that he was 
dying. I had him removed from the camp to the shade of a 
tree, there to die, which he didin about one hour afterwards, 
and just nineteen days from his being attacked. 
My other patient was a troop-horse, also in camp, and 
subject to “ gripes.” But these attacks were relieved by 
enemas and rubbing the belly, and did not present any pecu¬ 
liarity, except in the frequency of their recurrence. On the 
4th instant, at 7 a.m., on my going to the sick-lines, I found 
this horse suffering from some abdominal pain ; and I was 
informed that he first appeared uneasy about half an hour 
previously, while at the water, and that he did not drink. 
The symptoms this morning were unfavorable; the pain 
acute and continued; he threw himself down violently; the 
pulse was small and jerking; and I heard a noise in the 
throat, like imperfect regurgitation, which made me think of 
ruptured stomach. I ordered an enema to be thrown up, and 
solution of aloes with opium to be given, which he took 
well; and the belly was hand-rubbed. 
On going to see him again, at half-past nine o’clock, I 
found he had just died, this being two hours and a half after 
I first saw him, and three hours from the time he was first 
observed to be ill. 
The sun at this time being too hot for a post-mortem 
