Colic

Definition and stakes

Sir Robert Christison,  Treatise on Poisons

“ It would appear that lead colic is most frequent among people of that trade in cities of the largest size. In Geneva, as I am informed by my friend Dr. C. Coindet of that place, colica pictonum is now almost unknown and never occurs among painters. In Edinburgh it is also little known among painters. A journeyman painter, a patient of mine in the Infirmary, had been seventeen years in the trade, and yet did not know what the painters’ colic or lead palsy meant. In London, according to the Dispensary reports, and in Paris, according to the tables of Mérat, many workmen of that trade suffer. ”
Source: Gutenberg

James Law,  Text book of veterinary medicine… (1902)

“ He stands with back arched, loins insensible to pinching, and legs drawn somewhat toward each other under the belly. There are indications of colic, pawing, looking toward the flanks, and shifting of the hind feet without the violent kicking motion of spasmodic colic or intestinal congestion. When he lies down it is comparatively slowly and carefully and he is more inclined to lie on the side with hind legs, or at least the one on the affected side extended backward. ”
Source: Gutenberg

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