498 HERNIA. 



or more or less aggravated form, so that there is an appearance of 

 chronic gastro-enteritis, motor dyspepsia, or chronic indigestion. 



Though a diagnosis in this sense would be correct, the atony of 

 the rumen is not primary, but of mechanical origin. 



One indication is constantly present, which might suggest indi- 

 gestion due to overloading of the rumen, and which is also seen in 

 ulcerative gastritis, viz., progressive stasis of food in the cavity of the 

 rumen. When the patients remain for some time under observation, 

 this stasis becomes every day more marked, and, being recognised, the 



Fig. 224. — Schema of the position of the organs in the hernia represented 

 by Fig. 223. D, Diaphragm ; FF^, hver ; PZ, pleura ; Fe, omasum ; 'Re, 

 reticuhim ; CC, abomasum. 



diagnosis becomes easier. Animals suffering from mediastinal hernia lose 

 condition, waste away, and in the end may die in a state of cachexia. 



Lesions. The lesions vary greatly. In accidental diaphragmatic 

 hernia they are confined to rupture of the diaphragm, sometimes of 

 the liver, and to changes in the reticulum or omasum. 



In intra-mediastinal hernia the layers of the mediastinum form a 

 true hernial sac, and if the lesion is of old standing the displaced viscera 

 may become attached to it, compressed, and partially strangulated. 



Diagnosis. The diagnosis is very difficult, at all events in medi- 

 astinal hernia, and can only be arrived at by a process of exclusion. 



