TREATMENT OF COLIC. 
15 
stage of colic. I think it somewhat amusing nowadays to 
read some of the older, and, indeed, some of the more recent, 
veterinary works, in which one is told to abstract eight or ten 
quarts of blood for nearly every disease under the sun, and 
to follow this up with another three or four quarts if amend¬ 
ment (?) should not take place. It by no means follows, 
however, that because our forefathers carried this system to 
an extreme, that depletion is not occasionally called for. 
There is no objection, I think, to having a patient walked 
about, or even trotted, in many cases of colic. Sometimes a 
well-marhed case flatulent colic is seen, and exercise after 
an enema does good, if it be not violent. 
I may state that, in looking over my books for the past 
year, I find that the deaths from all diseases are at the rate 
of 2 per cent, per annum. I cannot, therefore, have lost 
many cases of colic, or, rather, cases commencing with symp¬ 
toms of colic. What I have stated is the result of practical 
experience, and not based upon theoretical bias. My only 
object is to show that other methods of treatment have been 
generally successful, though, perhaps, not quite so much so as 
Mr. Gamgee^s, for he says he has not lost a single horse by 
colic or other acute intestinal disease in thirty-two years 
where his treatment and directions have been followed. 
There are few men who can say their practice has excelled 
that, but still they may have been generally successful in 
their treatment. I hope to see the opinions of other practi¬ 
tioners recorded in the Veterinarian on this subject. I confess 
I shall be very glad to pick up a w rinkle ” or two, for so 
many cases present themselves out here that one often meets 
with something out of the common run of gripes,’^ and 
a discussion on the subject may elicit something wmrth 
know’ing. 
In conclusion, I may inform you, as a piece of news, that 
Youatt^s book on the horse has been entirely superseded in 
India by the Illustrated Horse Doctor. The latter is in the 
hands of every amateur veterinary surgeon in the country. 
You see it on the table of every young subaltern who aspires 
to a knowledge of horseflesh, the book being referred to by 
all who cannot command the services of a veterinary surgeon. 
And what a book ! 
