CHAPTER XXXIV. 



HERNIA, ETC. 



REDUCIBLE, IRREDUCIBLE, AND STRANGULATED HERNIA — UMBILICAL 

 OR EXOMPHALOS — VENTRAL, INGUINAL, AND SCROTAL llERNIiE — 

 GUT-TIE IN CATTLE, 



IIERNLE. 



Abdominal hernise, or ruptures, are divided into reducible, 

 irreducible, and strangulated, according to their condition ; and 

 into inguinal, scrotal, ventral, umbilical, and diaphragmatic, 

 according to their situation. 



A hernia is the protrusion of a piece of intestine, omentum, 

 or both, through one of the natural openings : a rupture, the 

 protrvision of intestine, omentum, or both, through the muscular 

 walls, but not through the skin, although the terms are made 

 use of synonymously. 



REDUCIBLE HERNIA. 



A hernia is reducible when it can be easily returned into 

 the abdomen. It consists of a soft fluctuating swelling, unat- 

 tended with heat, pain, or even uneasiness. It is generally 

 large after a full meal, and decreases in size when the bowels 

 are empty. "When the ' animal coughs, it becomes tense, larger, 

 and communicates a sudden impulse to the hand of the 

 examiner. Writers upon human surgery lay it down as a rule, 

 that when the swelling is elastic, uniform, and compressible, and 

 if its return be sudden, and attended with a peculiar gurgling 

 noise, there can be no doubt that the hernia is formed of intes- 

 tine. If the swelling be more solid and uneven, feeling dougliy 

 to the touch, receives an impression from the fingers of the 

 examiner, and if its return be gradual and unattended with any 

 peculiar sound, there can be no doubt of its being an omental 

 liernia only ; if a portion of the swelling be elastic, and returns 

 suddenly with a gurgling noise, and if the remaining part be 



