A NEW METHOD OF EMPLOYING CHARCOAL. 
659 
employed to stop fermentation, thus preventing gaseous ac¬ 
cumulation, and the next step is to rid the intestinal organs of 
the gases that have already formed by expulsion by means of 
« 
powerful cathartics, enterotomy or absorption. 
The foregoing is a picture of a case of indigestion that 
demands active and energetic treatment. Medication that will 
be prompt, rapid, effectual, positive and reliable in results. We 
know that the animal’s condition demands such treatment and 
with a failure to employ it how liable the stomach is or some of 
-the intestines to rupture and an almost necessarily fatal termina¬ 
tion will be the result. Our first thought after enterotomy has 
been performed, that is if we find such a procedure necessary, is 
to either stop or prevent fermentation and to absorb the gases 
which have already formed. Holding views at variance with 
those generally accepted concerning the prevention of fermenta¬ 
tion, and since the only object of this paper is to deal with the 
, absorption of gases, I will proceed with the subject proper. 
While attending college I listened more or less attentively to 
my learned and honored professors eulogize the beneficial results 
that were to be obtained by the use of charcoal when given in¬ 
ternally for the relief of gaseous distention due to fermentation 
in acute gastric and gastro-intestinal indigestion. We were told 
that charcoal absorbed several times its weight of gas, and the 
same statement is made by some of our standard authors on 
materia medica and chemistry ; and, again, others say that char¬ 
coal absorbs fifteen times its weight of gas. Now, while all they 
have said may be true, still I do not think they treated very 
many bad cases of acute indigestion with good results; if they 
did they treated a different class of horses from those which I at¬ 
tended, or they used charcoal that had effects and results posi¬ 
tively dissimilar to that which I employed. If they had good 
results and employed the treatment such as they told us then, 
they treated horses whose intestinal organs could not be rup¬ 
tured even by a modern ram. 
I employed charcoal, first vegetable, then animal, and what- 
■ -ever results were to be obtained by the use of the former, still I 
