438 
J. COATES. 
After reading a paper on the subject before the New York 
State Veterinary Society, from which time the trocar and 
canula became greatly used in the city in such cases, and also 
taught the students of the American Veterinary College its 
unlimited use, that now it is practiced all over the country 
with the greatest success. 
The one unremitting search of the day is for a key to the 
true nature of disease, and for remedies which do no violence 
to natural laws. A large number of popular remedies suffer 
from the effects of being too generally recommended. Ac¬ 
cording to the claims of their originators, they are useful in 
the most bewildering variety of ailments, curing every dis¬ 
ease. Where too much is claimed, we are apt to grant too 
little; and where we have been disappointed by using a drug 
in cases not suited to it, we are likely to doubt altogether its 
possession of any therapeutic value. 
Within the past few years, the use of glycerine in consti¬ 
pation as a remedial agency has been receiving much atten¬ 
tion by practitioners of both human and Veterinary medicine. 
Most of the modern authorities report very enthusiastically 
in its favor, but none of them have as yet written anything in 
regard to its use in flatulency, for it is certainly to be regard¬ 
ed as one of the greatest agents. 
It is wonderful that in this substance we have, if we use 
it properly, one of the most potent weapons in the warfare 
upon flatulent colic. 
Having access to a large number of both medical and 
veterinary journals and pamphlets, my attention was called 
to an article on the use of rectal injections of pure glycerine 
in constipation, and was somewhat dazed that such a prompt 
action took place. Being always ready to try any new remedy, 
I have used it on over one hundred dogs for constipation with 
a prompt action in every case in from one to three minutes 
rarely over two minutes after enema was given. As a firm 
believer in its use then I tried its effects upon a number of 
horses, with an action in three or four minutes, much more 
readily when the rectum is full of feces. Then used it on 
three cases of constipation in horses with poor success, as 
