An inquiry into the reasons why the horse rarely vomits / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee.

  • Gamgee, Sampson, 1828-1886.
Date:
[1852]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An inquiry into the reasons why the horse rarely vomits / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    after observing that the cardiac orifice ''has a sort of valve formed by the duplication of its membrane, adds, that ''the oesophagus, just previous to its entering the stomach, makes an acute angle, by which means, in great measure, vomiting in the horse is almost entirely for- bidden. It has not, however, been satisfactorily shewn that either of the forms of valve above alluded to, exists in the horse's stomach. 3. M. Colin,^ after repeating Lamorier's observation, that the rela- tive position of the stomach and large intestines protects the former from the direct pressure of the abdominal walls, correctly remarks that, at its terminal orifice, the walls of the oesophagus are very thick, and that the cavity in its interior is closed, the mucous membrane being folded like a radiated flower. To this arrangement, M. Colin attributes the impossibility, or extreme difficulty, of vomiting in horses ; and he endeavours to justify his belief by applying to the stomach the theory of the hydraulic press. But such a line of argument is not justly applicable in the case of the stomach and oesophagus, which, as living and active organs, are not regulated solely by hydraulic laws.^ 4, A fourth class of observers have attributed the difficulty of vomit- ing in the horse, to the oblique insertion of the oesophagus into the stomach, and to a sphincter, which they allege to be formed at the cardia by the union of the muscular bands belonging to the stomacii and oesophagus. This doctrine appears to have been first promulgated by Bertin,-who stated in proof of the existence of the cardiac sphincter, that the weight of a man did not suffice to expel water or air from the cardiac orifice of various stomachs, the duodenum being tied.^ La- fosse' only took into account the sphincter at the cardia, whereas, of late, Berard^ and Rymer Jones have reiterated the conclusion of Bertin; and the former writer, moreover, remarks'' that the rhythmic movement which M. Magendie discovered in the lower third of the oesophagus, does not occur in the horse, whose oesophagus, he adds, is composed, in its last eight or ten inches, of a very elastic but inirrit- able tissue. Since, however, the microscope, no less than the naked eye, abundantly attests the true muscular nature of that tissue, M. Berard's denial of its irritability does not seem to be sufficiently war- ranted. Bertin's theory has lately found a zealous advocate in M. Flourens,^ whose opinion on this question merits more careful study than do those of his predecessors, because he has based it on experiments which he affirms to be univoccd and demonstrative of the obstacle to vomiting in the horse. Having been interested by a perusal of M. Flourens' publication at an early period of my studentship, I at once repeated some of his ' Eecueil de Medecine Veterinaire pratique, iii serie, tone vi, p. 478.' 2 Histoire de I'Academie Royale des Sciences. Annee 1740, p. 33-4. 3 Had Bertin retlected tliat sphincters perform their function by vialuo of the ^dtal power of contraction with which tlieu' constituent muscular fibres are en- dowed, and that therefore they are inactive after death, he would have sought other explanations for the fact he observed. * Dictionnaire Raisonne d'Hippiatriqne, par M. Lafosse, vol. ii, p. 139. 5 Cours de Physiologie fait par P. Berard, vol. ii, p. 13!). 6 Cyclopaedia of Anatomy and Physiology : article Solipeda, p. 735. ^ Op. cit., vol. ii, p. -48. « Loc. cit.