DISEASES OF THE BOWELS. 705 



Mr. Aitken, V.S., Dalkeith, has a case on record of a cow which 

 recovered after five days of illness, the gangrenous portion 

 being expelled with the fseces. Before recovery from intus- 

 susception can occur, it is necessary that the opposed peritoneal 

 surfaces become adherent, and the imprisoned portion separated 

 by ulceration. 



Invagination of the small intestines, owing to the severity of 

 the inflammation, is necessarily fatal. 



Symptoms. — In the cow already mentioned, the symptoms were 

 those of enteritis and obstinate constipation. The treatment con- 

 sisted in the administration of opium. In Mr. Aitken's case 

 drastic cathartics were administered from the commencement. 

 The symptoms in the horse, as related by the late Mr. John Field, 

 are as follows : — " Pain ; restlessness, in some cases approaching 

 to madness, unrestrainable ; wandering about ; rolling on the 

 back ; sweating, in some cases profuse ; crouching ; sitting on 

 the hind quarters, almost diagnostic ; anxious countenance ; 

 frequent feeble pulse ; belly at first of natural size, subsequently 

 fuller, in some cases distended, dependent upon the locality of 

 the intussusception; membranes, in advanced stage, turgid, 

 injected ; mouth moist and clean, or furred and offensive ; respu-a- 

 tion accelerated ; continued restlessness ; rearing with fore legs 

 into manger, and standing upon that point d'appui, looking back 

 from side to side ; extremities cold ; pain absent, tranquil ; sigh- 

 ing or snorting ; death. The sighing may exist in some cases 

 and not in others, and in some retching and vomiting." 



I am, however, of opinion that there is no diagnostic symptom 

 of volvulus, intussusception, calculus, or strangulation of the 

 intestines in the horse ; that the above symptoms are common 

 to all, characteristic of none. In the dog and pig, however, 

 vomiting of stercorous matters is generally witnessed ; but even 

 in these animals this symptom may be induced by any cause 

 of obstruction. Stones accidentally swallowed, pieces of bone 

 arrested in the small intestines, are frequent sources of obstruc- 

 tion in the dog. 



Treatment. — It has been proposed to cut down upon and 

 mechanically remove the source of mischief. I tliink, however, 

 that the operation would be as bad as the lesion. If intus- 

 susception be due to contraction of one portion of intestine, and 

 the slipping in of that contracted portion into the healthy portion 



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