TWIST OR ROTATION OF THE COLON. 589 



operatoire pour l'espece bovine," Guittard describes it as quite an 

 everyday affair. Bleeding, after cutting through the bowel or 

 mesentery, can be stopped by torsion, or the vessels may be ligatured 

 with sterilised material. Great difficulty is caused by the continual 

 passage of ingesta through the anterior section of bowel, which 

 accordingly should be compressed by a bowel clamp, or lightly 

 ligatured during operation. After removing the invaginated portion, 

 the ends of the bowel are brought together by the bowel stitch, the 

 wound of the abdominal walls is sutured and antiseptically treated. 



Taccoen operated on two cows, from one of which he removed 10 inches 

 of bowel, but had no bad consequences. Thirty-five days later the external 

 wound was healed, and, on slaughter, the incision in the bowel was found 

 to be completely cicatrised. In a second case, an incurable anus preter- 

 naturalis formed, but did not impair the animal's health. 



Riedinger treated, during 1890, ten cases of invagination of the bowel 

 in oxen. Seven animals had to be slaughtered on account of the operation 

 being done too late ; in the others laparotomy was carried out and the 

 invagination reduced. The portion of the bowel was cleansed with • 1 

 per cent, of sublimate solution, replaced, and the wound closed with button 

 sutures. After-treatment consisted in giving purgatives. Five to six 

 hours after operation, action of the bowels occurred. In one of the animals 

 peritonitis occurred five days after operation, rendering slaughter necessary 

 the two others recovered in fourteen days. 



In dogs laparotomy can be performed through the abdominal 

 floor and the invagination reduced or the bowel resected as above 

 described. In the latter case Murphy's button can be used. 



V.— TWIST OR ROTATION OF THE COLON IN HORSES. 



In 1890, Jelkmann first indicated the possibility of recognising 

 during life and of surgically treating torsion of the colon, which not 

 infrequently occurs in horses, and often leads to death. The im- 

 portance of this question is shown by the constant occurrence of 

 the disease. According to Jelkmann, 70 out of every 192 horses 

 dying of colic in Munich had twist or displacement of the colon. 

 Of 23 post-mortems after colic, made in the year 1887-8, twist of the 

 colon was found in 10. According to the statistics given by the 

 Veterinary Sanitary Reports of the Prussian army, in 1889, as many 

 as 84 horses died from displacement or twist of the colon. Great 

 credit must be given to Jelkmann for having directed attention to 

 this point, and, though his statements have in certain quarters been 

 met with distrust, this may be explained in part by the fact that 

 practitioners had not made themselves sufficiently acquainted with 

 the anatomical conditions or methods of surgical treatment. In 

 205 colic patients Jelkmann found displacement 13 times, and effected 



