or to ascertain the degree in which the latter
disease exists. If the probang bring on a sudden rush of gas, the
disease is wholly or chiefly hoove; and if it encounter a solid
resistance, the disease mawbound, and exists in a degree of aggravation
proportioned to the nearness of the point at which the resistance is
felt.

In mild cases of impaction of the paunch, when the animal does not seem
to suffer much pain, and is not materially fevered, but merely ceases
rumination or chewing of the cud, refuses to eat, and lies long and
indolently in one posture, a dose of oil, or a little forced walking,
are frequently sufficient to effect a cure. In cases which, though on
the whole mild, are accompanied with a kind of inertia, or with an
insuperable reluctance to rise or to move about, stimulants, such as
ether diluted with alcohol and water, may be required to rouse the
paunch into renewed action; but whenever such remedies are necessary,
they must be given in cautious doses, and always accompanied with some
gentle purgatives. In very bad cases, when the animal seems sinking
through inertness into death, or in which moans, swells at the sides,
becomes almost as a board in the flanks, appears to suffer great and
increasing pain, and seems eventually to be overwhelmed with anguish and
to be passing into unconsciousness, it must be promptly decided whether
we have sufficient time and encouragement to try the effect of
stimulants, purgatives, the stomach pump, and other comparatively gentle
measures; and if not, we should, without much delay, cut through the
left flank into the paunch, and with the hands withdraw the contents.
The cutting operation itself is attended or followed with little danger;
but in the extracting of the food, no matter how carefully performed,
some small portion is liable to drop into the abdominal cavity; and
this, in consequence of its indigested condition, resists absorption or
expulsion, undergoes an irritating decomposition, and may very probably
originate some serious inflammatory disorder. Any animal which has
suffered a very bad case of impaction of the paunch, ought, immediately
after complete restoration to health, to be sent to the shambles; for,
independently of the lurking danger consequent on the artificial
extraction of the food, or even upon the relaxation which follows the
administration of a stimulant, the paunch is so much overstretched and
injured by the mechanical effects of the dist