2i6 Veterinary Medicine. 



ing with resulting induration and stricture of the gut. Chronic 

 and permanent lesions are produced by such blocking, but onh- 

 rarely acutely fatal ones. Acute and fatal congestive lesions of 

 the small intestine from verminous emboli.sm, occur only when 

 several adjacent divisions of the artery are blocked at once, and 

 this is a rare occurrence. 



The right bundle of branches furnishes the only two arteries 

 which are supplied to the caecum and the onl}' artery furnished 

 to the first half of the double colon. The ileo-csecal branch is less 

 involved, first, because being less dependent and smaller, itisless 

 likely to receive an embolus, and, second, because anj^ lack of 

 blood suppl}' is counterbalanced by the free anastomosis with the 

 last iliac division of the left bundle. When the embolus blocks 

 tlie undivided trunk of the right bundle this same principle comes 

 into play, the free supply of blood from the posterior branch of 

 the left bundle supplying blood through its anastomosis with the 

 iliac and caecal branches of the right. 



But when the emboli are lower down, in the csecal branches of 

 the right bundle, or in these and the colic branch, arrest of the 

 circulation in the intestinal walls ensues, followed by paresis, 

 pa.ssive congestion and hemorrhage. The caecum and double 

 colon thus become the seats of the grave and fatal lesions of ver- 

 minous embolism. 



The resulting lesions are to be variously accounted for. The 

 stagnation of blood in the vessels below the embolus, determines 

 a speedy exhaustion of its oxygen and increase of its carbon 

 dioxide, so that it is rendered unfit to maintain the normal nutri- 

 tion and functions of the part, and the capillary and intestinal 

 walls are alike struck with atony or paresis. The blood filters 

 into the stagnant vessels slowly from adjacent anastomosing 

 trunks, and the liquor sanguinis exudes into the substance of the 

 tissues and lumen of the intestine, leaving behind the greater part 

 of the blood globules so that the stagnant blood is rendered more 

 and more abnormal in composition. The walls of the capillaries 

 soon lose their cohesion as well as their contractilit}^ and giving 

 way at different points, allow the escape of blood into the tissues, 

 bowels and peritoneal cavity. It has been further claimed that 

 the emboli already infected and in process of degeneration com- 

 municate this to the walls of the vessels and to the stagnant 

 blood, hastening the process of degeneration and rupture. 



