41 8 CLINICAL VETERINARV MEDICINE AND SURGERY. 



the animal the conjunctiva was found highly injected, the pulse quick, 

 small, and irritable ; the skin tight ; the muscles of the quarters hard 

 and tense ; the anus retracted into the pelvis (as it is after violent pur- 

 gation) ; the vulva relaxed and open ; the walls of the vagina tense and 

 highly inflamed, the vessels standing out prominently like tortuous 

 cords. 



The vagina itself was a large cavity in which the hand could be 

 easily moved to and fro, the walls appearing to be stretched to their 

 utmost limit ; when pressed on by the fingers and the pressure sud- 

 denly relaxed, a kind of elastic recoil occurred. Air constantly passed in 

 and out of the vagina — there was, in fact, a kind of vaginal respiration. 



Treatment. — A purge was given by the mouth, a dose of morphine 

 hypodermically, and a sedative injected into the vagina. 



On the I2th the purge was acting, the appetite was in abe3'ance, 

 and the animal only showed occasional attacks of excitement. 



On the 13th the excitement returned almost as severely as at first, 

 but yielded after a sedative had been given. 



During the ensuing five days the appetite gradually returned, the 

 attacks diminished, and the animal recovered. 



In another similar case recovery was protracted for three weeks, and 

 the animal afterwards retained the habit of kicking, so that it was 

 sold. 



In a third case, in which the animal had been served by a stallion 

 and three days afterwards had performed a journey of twenty miles, 

 dulness and depression replaced the excitement seen in those above 

 mentioned. The animal made no resistance to examination, and when 

 moved remained standing inertly until its position was again altered. 

 The pulse was full, regular, and forty per minute; the conjunctiva 

 was injected, the eye glassy, amaurotic, and scarcely sensitive to 

 light ; the temperature 101° F. The condition of the anus, vulva, 

 and vagina was identical with that above described ; air passed in and 

 out of the vagina, and urine was frequently passed in small quantities. 

 The patient remained extremely depressed and sluggish for four days ; 

 it did not perfectly recover for a week or two. The visit to the stallion 

 was not repeated, but the animal proved to be in foal. 



Note. — Though the normal period of oestrum in the mare does not 

 exceed three days, it lasted in Case i about six days, in Case 2 nearly 

 a month. In Case 3 the sexual appetite had been gratified, and 

 instead of excitement the animal showed an almost cataleptic condition. 

 The writer ascribes the onset in Cases i and 3 to the highly stimu- 

 lating diet. 



Mr. G. E. King's case, Joiirn. Comp. Path, and Tlierap., 1893, p. 69. 



PROLAPSUS VAGINA IN A YOUNG MARE. 



128. A two and a half year old Clydesdale mare, sixteen hands high, 

 seen on August 20th, 1897. 



History. — In the autumn of 1896 had been cast in the stable, as a 

 result of which the owner thought the animal had injured itself. 

 During the summer of 1897, while the mare was at grass, the vagina 



