318 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



possible to the abdomen, and tightly compressed and secured in position 

 by string or a screw. 



The instrument is allowed to remain, when in the course of ten or 

 twelve days, the inflammatory action excited in the subcutaneous tissue 

 will have closed the opening in the abdominal wall, and the clamp with 

 the dead compressed skin will fall away, leaving behind a dense firm scar. 

 In adjusting the clamp care must be taken not to use so much pressure as 

 to cut the skin or cause its too speedy death, lest it should fall away 



before the orifice is filled in. 

 Another method having the 

 J2^- same end in view is the intro- 

 duction of two metal skewers, or 

 ^pif strong needles, beneath the skin 

 of the part, cross-ways (fig. 117), 

 after which a ligature is tightly 

 bound round the skin above 



Fig. 117. -Treatment of Umbilical Hernia with Needles them > and all ° Wed t0 remain Ulltil 



the integument and skewers fall 

 away. In performing this operation the greatest care should be observed 

 that the skin and the instruments to be passed through it are thoroughly 

 clean and disinfected, and above all that the sac is completely emptied 

 of its contents before the skewers are introduced. 



INGUINAL HERNIA— BUBONOCELE 



These terms are used to indicate the escape and lodgment of some 

 of the abdominal contents in the inguinal canal. Although a common 

 form of rupture in man, it is of rare occurrence in horses, owing chiefly 

 to the horizontal position of the abdomen in the latter, and the slope 

 of the belly throwing the weight of the viscera forward towards the 

 diaphragm, instead of bearing down upon the inguinal region, as in the 

 former. This particular rupture, both in man and beast, is more likely 

 to occur in males than females. In geldings the operation of castration, 

 by inducing wasting of the spermatic cord and contraction of the opening 

 by which the belly communicates with the inguinal canal, renders the 

 occurrence much rarer in them than in stallions. 



Causes. — The predisposition to both inguinal and scrotal hernia is 

 no doubt hereditary, and as a congenital condition it is well known to 

 veterinary surgeons and castrators. 



The very rare occurrence of this form of hernia in geldings seems to 

 furnish a clue to its more common occurrence in stallions, for while in the 



