COLICS IN HORSES. 
221 
COLICS IN HORSES, 
By Mr. Laquerrieke.* 
{Continued from page 115.) 
GENERAL ETIOLOGY OF COLICS. 
The causes of the affections we are discussing are as numerous 
and various as the forms they assume, and these are as diverse 
as their modes of manifestation and the lesions they exhibit. At 
times the pathogeny is very simple; while at others only hypo¬ 
thetical presumptions can be ventured, and again, and commonly, 
the most minute and critical investigations will fail to reveal any 
intelligible facts connected with the case in hand. 
In order to simplify the question of the etiology of these 
affections, we shall, like Reynal, divide them into the two general 
titles of first, the predisposing, and second, occasional causes. 
At the head of the list of predisposing causes, we may, as 
others have done before us, refer to the anatomical disposition of 
the gastro-intestinal canal. The stomach is very small relatively 
to the intestines, and is, besides, unable to relieve itself by the 
act of vomiting, which would produce immediate, and very often, 
permanent relief. The small intestines, by their excessive mobil¬ 
ity, are exposed to changes of form and situation ; the mucous 
membrane being very vascular and very sensitive, is on that ac¬ 
count very readily impressed by external causes, which may give 
rise to pain or to congestion, and often to both. The large intes¬ 
tines, not as mobile as the small, may still be easily displaced. 
The ccecum displaces itself backwards; the small colon becomes 
strangulated; the large colon itself is liable to become bent back¬ 
wards at its diaphragmatic curvature. Again, by the special 
functions of the large intestine it is predisposed to agglomera¬ 
tions and to impaction of its contents; and at last, its enormous 
size, together with the thinness -of its walls, expose it to corres¬ 
ponding danger of laceration of the organ under the influence of 
alimentary distentions. The walls of the stomach, also so thin, 
are in the same manner liable to laceration from the accumulation 
of bulky aliments, whether solid or liquid, in its cavity. The 
* Translated from La Presse Veterinaire. 
