422 OPERATIONS ON THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



suddenly; turns about, moves to and fro, lashes with, his tail, and, 

 in a word, betrays all the usual signs of intense suffering, and it 

 becomes difficult, if not dangerous, to approach him in order to 

 make a proper examination. The temperature of the body is ele- 

 vated, there is some perspiration, the nose is hot, though still 

 moist ; both respiration and circulation are accelerated. The ani- 

 mal refuses food or drink, rumination is suspended, and though 

 defecation has not ceased, the faeces are hard, blackish and coated. 



In from six to twelve hours, this state of febrile excitement 

 subsides, and the animal becomes dull and quiet, gazing towards 

 its flanks, the ears dropping, the hind leg corresponding to the 

 side of the hernia is extended backward, and at the same time the 

 lumbar region is relaxed downward. If the animal is lying down 

 he may remain quiet for a while, with his hind leg still extended, 

 but will presently spring to his feet with his back arched as before, 

 at the lumbar region, but which drops again and straightens im- 

 mediately. When he walks it is with a stiff action, principally 

 towards the diseased side ; the extremities are cool, the pulse is 

 small and insensible, respiration is accelerated ; constipation at 

 length becomes complete with mucous and bloody passages, per- 

 haps accompanied with flatulence, but micturition is still easy. 



Two or three days later there are other changes. The period 

 of calm terminates, and is succeeded by a season of alternating 

 agitation and repose — action and reaction of the fluctuating in- 

 flammatory process. 



The animal now and then utters grunts of pain, his pulse be- 

 comes smaller, and is at length imperceptible, and all the un- 

 favorable manifestations are exaggerated. Either gangrene has 

 supervened, or, as some would judge, enteritis, and all the symjv 

 toms point towards the more fatal termination. 



It is only by rectal examination that the diagnosis can be- posi- 

 tively established, and when this has been carefully and success- 

 fully made, he will have discovered what may be thus described : 

 a puffy mass, indefinite as to size, situated usually nearer the 

 sacrum than the pubis, on the side of which, generally the right, 

 a portion of the intestines has sHpped under the testicvdar cord — 

 this being the definition of a crural hernia. It may be a simple 

 protrusion of the intestine, and again, this maybe twisted around 

 the spermatic cord, a condition particularly likely to terminate in 

 strangulation. 



