NORTH OF ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 947 
will allay the pain, repeating it when necessary. I order enemas 
of warm water to be given every two hours, and hot fomentations 
to the abdomen. Should at any time the pain increase, and the 
pulse indicate inflammatory action, we must bleed from the jugular 
and blister the abdomen, the blistering to be followed with hot 
fomentations again. If the mouth is foul, give small and repeated 
doses of carb. magnesia or sodse. Keep the body and extremities 
warm, be particularly careful to stop all solid food, do not allow 
the smallest quantity of any kind; a mouthful of water, linseed- 
tea, or oatmeal-gruel occasionally, is all that ought to be allowed. 
Some people are afraid the patient will die from want; have no fear 
of this; he is more likely to die from eating. 
I have often found benefit to follow kneading the abdomen with 
the hands, particularly the off flank—by kneading, I mean the act 
of gently pushing and moving the hands upon the abdomen ; par¬ 
ticularly will this be found serviceable when there is much flatu¬ 
lency present; by it the bowels are moved about, wind is expelled, 
and action of the bowels promoted. The other remedy I will draw 
your attention to, namely, forcing air into the rectum by means of 
a pair of bellows ; this, I think, will be serviceable in case of twist 
or intussusception occurring in the posterior part of the colon. I 
have tried it in two cases, and I firmly believe that, in one of the 
cases, it was the means of saving the patient’s life. He was a cart¬ 
horse, and had been suffering severely for five days, and everything 
pointed to a fatal termination of the case. When I mentioned it to 
Dr. Heath of this town, and he recommended the use of the bellows 
and told me of a case in which by their use he had saved a patient’s 
life, I obtained a pair, and for two days a man did little else but 
force air into the rectum with them; the bowels became perceptibly 
distended, the patient was always easy while the bellows were used, 
and when not used large quantities of wind were passed off per 
rectum, the bowels became acted upon, faeces passed, and the 
patient made a good recovery. 
In conclusion, I think we can do more good by giving such 
medicines as will allay pain, stopping all food, and giving copious 
enemas, than by any other means. Purgatives I look upon as only 
secondary agents ; as a rule one dose at the first is all that ought to 
be given ; a second dose of aloes should never be ventured upon, 
although a second, or, in some cases, even a third dose of oil may 
be given with advantage; but, bear in mind, the more acute the 
case, and the greater the obstruction, the more harm will the pur¬ 
gatives do : they will irritate and set up inflammatory action, and 
the bowel, anterior to the obstruction, instead of being kept empty 
and quiet, will be distended, weakened, and inflamed. The patient’s 
strength must be husbanded, not by food, but by keeping him free 
from pain, attending to his general comfort, and, in protracted cases, 
port wine may be given with benefit. We must act with extreme 
caution, for from the parts implicated being so hidden from view, 
it is impossible to speak positively as to the real cause of the ob¬ 
struction in all cases. We can only approximate to it, therefore 
XLii. 65 
