MR. LAGUERRIKRK. 
112 
COLICS IN HORSES. 
By Mr. Laquerriere.* 
{Continued from page 72.) 
The differential diagnosis of colics, or more properly, of the 
lesions of which they are the symptomatic expression, is by com¬ 
mon consent of the best qualified practitioners and authors of the 
first repute, conceded to be a work of exceeding difficulty. But 
must we, therefore, accept the conclusions of M. Roll, and agree 
that it can only be reached by studying the progress of the dis¬ 
ease, watching its terminations, and waiting for the result of the 
treatment? To accept a decision like this would be equivalent to 
a renunciation of our confidence in the treatment of this class of 
cases, and would reduce our diagnosis to the mere aposteriori 
revelation of a post mortem investigation. 
Under these conditions it would be better to accept the opin¬ 
ion of Reynal, who says : “ if it is true that in cases of colics we are 
frequently unable to go back from the symptoms to the determin¬ 
ing cause, and to fix positively the nature of that cause, it is at 
least also true that it is possible, by careful study of all the 
characters which belong to colics, to form a diagnosis which, if 
not positive, may be at least, strongly probable, of the nature of 
the pathological alterations which give rise to it.” 
It results from these well founded considerations that the di¬ 
agnosis is, in fact, really possible in a certain ratio of cases, 
though not in all, just as we sometimes encounter cases of lame¬ 
ness of which it baffles our ingenuity to discover the seat, or cor¬ 
rectly to define the cause. 
The practitioner who encounters one of these inscrutable 
cases, should, nevertheless, never hesitate or decline the duty of 
attempting a diagnosis, and to aim at success, as remarks Reynall, 
by pursuing both the analytical and exclusive or synthetic pro¬ 
cesses. He should study the various attitudes of the patients and 
their different movements and actions, and if it is true that these 
attitudes and actions are common to the many diseases which 
* Translated from La Presse Veterinaire. 
