=Spasmodic colic= is an affection which every loiterer about a stable, from a postboy to a farrier, imagines he is able to cure. Many attacks no doubt would depart of themselves; others might be removed by simple motion. Nevertheless such possible remedies should never be trusted. Neither should gin and pepper, red pepper and peppermint, hot beer and mustard, rubbing the abdomen with a broomstick, kneading the belly violently with a man's knee, or any popular measure be permitted. Such remedies are likely to get rid of colic by causing enteritis. When inflammation of the bowels thus originates, it is generally fatal, the strength being exhausted and the powers of nature worn out by the previous disorder--not to mention the prepossession of the spectators, which prevents the more serious disease from being early recognized. [Illustration: DIAGRAM EXPLAINING HOW THE BOWELS ARE AFFECTED BY SPASMODIC COLIC. _a a._ The healthy intestine rendered much more vascular by the blood being spasmodically driven out of other portions of the tube. _b._ A portion of the tube much diminished by the presence of abdominal spasm. _c._ The pallid appearance, denoting the place which colic has recently attacked.] Any cause may kindle colic. It is common after fast driving; hence many gentlemen take colic drinks to Epsom races. That affection which in ladies is designated spasms, in gentlemen is called pain in the bowels, and in children is known as the bellyache, is, in the horse, colic; and from the largeness of the animal's intestines, the affection probably provokes more anguish in the quadruped than the same disorder does in the entire human race. Under whatever term it may be recognized, spasmodic colic is never more than partial contraction of the muscular coat of the intestines. The action so compresses a part of the tube as to expel the blood and render the natural pink of the tissues, for some time after the disorder has departed, a glistening white. The blood, driven from particular spots, is forced into those parts in which no disease exists. Excess of blood predisposes to inflammation; hence we probably trace the reason why, if spasmodic colic be suffered to continue, the affection is so apt to end in incurable enteritis.