870 
E. m!ink. 
this motion is more “ virtual than real,” it is specially insufficient, 
to produce sensible pressure upon the superior face of the sole, 
produce its lowering, the spreading of its branches and the dilata¬ 
tion of the heels, as admitted by Bracy Clark and his followers. 
(To be continued .) 
ACUTE INDIGESTION, 
OR FLATULENT COLIC, ENTEROTOMY, Etc. 
Read before the Rochester Veterinary Medical Association. 
BY E. MINK, V.S , ROCHESTER, N. Y. 
Two forms of acute indigestion are quite prevalent in horses. 
The one in which the stomach is surcharged with food, unaccom¬ 
panied by tympanitic distension, and causing cerebral symptoms, 
either in the form of delirium, stupor or paralysis. The other is 
attended with tympany or flatulency, in some cases slight, in others 
to such a degree as to cause by its pressure, difficult respiration, 
rupture of stomach or diaphragm or death from suffocation. 
It is the latter form of indigestion that I intend to discourse 
on in this paper. I will say to begin with, that there is probably 
no ailment of the horse that is the subject of more empiricism 
and quackery, both within and outside the profession, than that of 
flatulent colic. The variety of remedies that have been used for 
its relief or cure, is simply astonishing, and many of them ridicu¬ 
lous, yet they have all in turn given satisfaction, from hen’s-dung^ 
chicken guts, chalk and vinegar, on up to the scientific remedies 
of the professional veterinarian. 
At this point I am reminded of the sayings of Dr. Forbes in 
his work on Nature and Art in the Cure of Disease. 
“ Whenever many remedies are recommended for one disease, 
there is presumptive evidence that none of them are of much 
value. If any one of them could be relied upon, the others would 
soon cease to be used and fall into disrepute. So it is with the 
medical theories upon which the medical art is founded. If the 
symptoms observed in any disease are explained on many different 
hypotheses, we have presumptive evidence that its true nature is 
not thoroughly understood.” 
