An inquiry into the reasons why the horse rarely vomits / by Joseph Sampson Gamgee.
- Sampson Gamgee
- Date:
- [1852]
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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![to their illustrious countryman; a result Avhich would in all probability have been different, had they rigidly tested the validity of the claims of his doctrine,' and have taken due notice of the positive observations of Wepfer, Haller, and Kudolphi, and of the recorded cases in which vomiting occurred when extrinsic pressure was removed from the stomach, either by palsy or destruction of the abdominal muscles. That the energetic concurrence of the nervous power, and of the action of the expiratory muscles of the abdominal wall, takes part in the act of vomiting, as stated in M. Mignon's fourth proposition, all will grant; but that it is fourth in the order of succession we deny, for it is well known that purely nervous phenomena are the first signs of a disposition to vomit; and that it is fourth in the order of import- ance we deny, on the ground of the experimental truth, that, whereas the condition of the stomach is unimportant, a participation of the nervous system is indispensable, before the movements necessary to vomiting can be effected. So unimportant, indeed, is the condition of the stomach, that vomiting may occur without it, as proved by M. Magcndie's experiment of substituting a pig's bladder for a dog's stomach; and it is not a little surprising that the reporter, who seems to have laid so much stress on it, should not have discovered that his idea of excessive dilatation of the stomach being the condition, jmr excellence, of vomiting in the horse, was opposed to the result of an experiment which he invoked in defence of his views. Now that we have subverted three out of the four propositions on which Mignon's theory is founded, we should be at a loss to guess what might be his idea as to the reasons why the horse rarely vomits, if, in a discussion which ensued on his report,- he had not unequivo- cally avowed assent to Girard's mechanical doctrine, the fallacy of which we have already demonstrated. Thus we have completed a critical and historical account of the opinions emitted on the subject; and, having proved that all observers have attributed the rarity of vomiting in the horse to mechanical causes ivhich do not exist, it remains for us to determine whether there are any impediments to it in the nervous system of the horse. With this object in view, let us inquire into the action of emetics in the horse. III. What is the actiok of emetics on the horse ? It is so well known among veterinary pathologists, that the horse is not acted on by emetics as is the dog, that, while they frequently prescribe them in the diseases of the latter, they never do so in those of the former. The most celebrated writers on veterinary therapeutics, generally exclude emetics from the list of medicines available for the relief of the diseases of the horse, and refuse to the emetic, par excel- » Sound critics liave long since decided that Magendie's conclusions on vomit- ing are not wai-ranted hy his experiments, which, at utmost, prove that vomiting may occur by the extrinsic pressure of the diaphragm and abdominal muscles, witliout the active co-operation of the stomach. They certainly do not disprove, that under ordinary circumstances, the stomach aids in the ejection of its con- tents by the a!SO])hagus. 2 Les vraies raisonsjles seules bonnes et importantes raisons de I'impossibilite du vomissement, indiques et decrites d'abord par Bertin, ont etc parfaitement de- veloppes par M, Girard, dans son memoire dc 1810, ct surtout dans sa notice de 1«41.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22276695_0013.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
