THE THERAPEUTICS OF COLIC. 
471 
time. Morphine in small or medium doses is indicated unless 
tympany is present, in which case it should give way to can¬ 
nabis indica, or to chloral, alcohol and ether, the gaseous ac¬ 
cumulations being studiously relieved by the use of the 
trocar. Purgatives are clearly inadmissible. 
In spasmodic colic, while carminatives, stimulants, seda¬ 
tives and other classes of remedies relieve in many cases, 
morphine certainly comes most rationally into use as the 
chief remedial agent, and it may be pushed to a very consid¬ 
erable degree. It should be constantly borne in mind, how¬ 
ever, that morphine is not soporific in solipeds , but, on the other 
hand, in large doses is uniformly and dangerously excitant, as has 
been pointed out by Guinard (Jour, de Med. Vet et de 
Zootechnie, July, 1893), so that it must be used cautiously 
and not pushed beyond the degree needed for the alleviation 
of pain. No remedy is so misused and its actions so misun¬ 
derstood by veternarians as is opium, and its chief alkaloid, 
morphine. We are generally taught that it is soporific and 
depressant in the horse. So when the veterinarian makes too 
great haste to relieve pain by its use the horse becomes ex¬ 
cited, nostrils dilated, eyes staring, tail elevated and the 
patient becomes uncontrollable, the victim of opium poison¬ 
ing, while the improperly taught veterinarian tries to overcome 
this excitation by larger doses, adding more and more to the 
difficulty, finally ending in fatal opium poisoning, and the 
veterinarian is left wondering why his morphine would not 
quiet the patient. Not long since I read the communication 
of a layman of how the veterinarian of his locality habitually 
lost all colic cases because morphine failed to quiet them, but 
instead they were more restless and moved faster as more of 
the drug was given, while other horses treated by novices 
with sage tea or peppermint recovered, and drew therefrom 
the conclusion that, so far as colic is concerned, veterinary 
science is a conspicuous failure, and there was much logic in 
his conclusion. 
I recently saw a horse very much excited by one grain of 
morphine given to relieve pain after castration, and to relieve 
this excitement two more were given which rendered the 
