THE SAC FORMED IN THE BOWEL; THIS THE
CALCULUS HAS QUITTED, WHILE ANOTHER
PORTION OF THE INTESTINE HAS SO
FIRMLY GRASPED IT AS TO RUPTURE ITSELF.
Calculus or stone may be present, either in the stomach or in the canal. Those in the stomach are of small size; those within the intestines may attain the weight of more than twenty pounds. Those of the stomach are always smooth, as also may be those of the bowels. To the intestines, however, there are common three kinds of, or differently composed calculi: the triple phosphate or the earthy; one formed of the minute hairs which originally surrounded the kernel of the oat; and another composed of dung, held together by the mucous secretion of the bowel. Any of these calculi may, as the size increases, gradually stretch the intestine; thus forming a living sac within which the stone abides. While it remains there, the food passes over it and no injury is occasioned. But by any movement it is likely to be dislodged and thrown into the healthy channel: There it is firmly grasped with such force as to produce rupture of the intestine, and the hold is only relaxed after inflammation has ended in mortification and in death. The bowels, in truth, are impacted by calculus. The passage is stopped. However different the causes of abdominal injury may appear, they are each generally characterized by the severest possible abdominal pain. This symptom is often so violent that the agony conceals all other indications; or if any others can be exhibited, they are so partially shown and displayed for so very brief a space as not to permit of their being rightly interpreted.
It is very desirable that every one should witness a powerful horse in its agony. No stronger means could be found for enforcing such a lesson than the sufferings which spring from abdominal injuries. When this is proposed it is not intended the person should look on misery only so long as the spectacle stimulated his feelings; but that he should watch hour after hour and behold the afflicted life resigned under the pressure of mighty torment. Were such a sight once contemplated—were man fully conscious of how brimming with horrible expression every feature of the horse's frame can become—the thought of anguish wrenching life out of so huge a trunk would surely compel the better treatment of a gentle, inoffensive, and serviceable slave. Ruptured stomach a little forethought would prevent. The triple phosphate calculus is common among millers' horses, which are foully fed from the sweepings of the shop. But if man will oblige duty to bow before convenience, or make it secondary to expense, the misery he inflicts will surely in justice recoil upon himself.
Abdominal injuries are probably the sources of the greatest agony horse-flesh can endure. To account for the generality of such lesions, it is merely necessary to regard the places in which horses are housed and the manner in which they are fed. In the owner's estimation a horse seems to be a horse, in the same sense as a table is a table. Both objects are necessary to his comfort, to his pride, or to his profit. Neither have higher claims. Both are to be used and to be flung aside. The one is to be cleaned and repaired at the cheapest rate; the other is to be lodged and supported at the lowest cost. When either grow old in his service, each is equally to be discarded. The two things apparently rank in man's estimation as simple chattels subject to his will and made to please his fancy. That there is a huge life, a breathing sensibility attached to one of these articles; that it delights in its master's pleasure, and, if properly trained, it is capable of sharing its master's emotions, is so preposterous a sentimentality as to be "with scorn rejected."
Nobody speaks of the horse as a creature enjoying man's highest gift—as a living animal. Everybody talks about his or her constitution; but no one imagines the horse has a constitution which can be destroyed. All horses are expected to thrive equally. They are regarded as things to be used, and to be sold or packed away when not required. They are obliged to live by man's direction, and are expected to display the highest spirit whenever they are taken abroad. Should it be astonishing if the framework nature has so exquisitely balanced occasionally becomes deranged under man's barbarous and selfish sway? Is it cause for legitimate wonder if, under so coarse a rule, disease sometimes assumes strange forms, or attacks parts which are beyond the reach of human science?
WORMS.
Worms are of various kinds; but all, according to the notions of ignorance, announce their presence by particular symptoms. The parasites, when really present, can, however, cause no more than intestinal irritation, the continuance of which may give rise to several disorders. Chronic indigestion is by the groom always recognized as a "wormy condition."
The only certain proof of the existence of such annoyances is visible evidence. Upon suspicion, careful horse proprietors may administer certain medicine, because some physics only cool the body and cleanse the system. The generality of worm-powders are, however, too potent to be safe. Like all drugs sold as "certain cures," they are so powerful that they frequently do more than remove the disorder which they pretend to eradicate—for they also destroy the animals to which they are administered.
Having premised thus much, the author will now commence to describe the usual form of irritation to which worms of different kinds give rise.