HERNIA. 423 



This lesion may continue as long as nine days, four to five 

 being the average duration, and it may terminate by spontaneous 

 reduction, but the trustful surgeon who too confidently and too 

 often expects to find that Nature has dispensed with his aid in 

 this kindly way, is doomed to encounter many disappointments. 

 Or it may end in gangrene or enteritis. 



The fact that the disease, if not interfered with, may terminate 

 fatally in so brief a period as five days, of course renders the 

 prognosis quite a serious one, unless the nature of the ailment 

 has had an early identification and measures have been taken to 

 avert the danger. The gravity of the prospect is, of course, in- 

 creased when the complication with strangulation or enteritis, as 

 before mentioned, enters into the case. 



The treatment, as in other cases, consists in the reduction of 

 the hernia. With a small proportion of patients this may be 

 effected by the simple act of causing the animal to walk down a 

 steep decHvity — a sort of spontaneous, or semi-spontaneous cure, 

 from which, although founded on anatomical principles, too much 

 must not be confidently expected. We copy from Zundel his de- 

 scription of other and more scientific methods : 



(«) Reduction by Simple Taxis. — The animal is placed on an 

 incHned plane, with his hind-quarters raised, and an assistant on 

 one side of him ready, at a given moment, to press on the loins. 

 The operator, with his hand in the rectum, searches for the in- 

 testinal loop, and when he has found it, holding it in the bottom 

 of his hand, he feels for the opening under the spermatic cord, 

 which he dilates with his fingers, and now, while the assistant 

 presses hard on the loins, as just mentioned, the intestine may 

 be readily felt moving downward and forward under the cord, to 

 resume its normal position. -Although simple, and, in the ma- 

 jority of cases, successful, this mode has the defect of leaving the 

 animal exposed to a return of the hernia. 



{h) Reduction by Laceration of the Cord through the Rectmyi. 

 — This method is recommended by Metzger, Eisele, Schenck, 

 Gierer and Ostertag. It consists in tearing away the adhesions 

 formed by the stump of the cord after castration, and loosening 

 it from the inguinal ring. It is, however, difficult to do, and not 

 without danger. The hand being introduced into the rectum, 

 and the opening found, the fingers are closed in the form of a 

 wedge, and with a sHght movement of rotation pushed through 



