RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM. 189 



The stomacli almost black. The bladder, including its neck 

 and urethra, all gangrenous. Small calculi within the neck of 

 the bladder. Notwithstanding all this disease of the viscera, 

 the horse continued to eat during the intervals of cessation 

 from pain, which lasted about ten minutes each time; though 

 these were followed by fits of extreme agony of half an hour's 

 duration and upwards. 



A case similar to the foregoing has recently occurred in 

 my own practice : it will be found in vol. xxvi of The 

 Veterinarian, April, 1853. A troop horse was brought to 

 me for having hurt himself " behind," by — it was reported 

 — "falling down in his sleep :" a story I did not believe. I 

 heard afterwards, he had slipped up at the Horse Guards. 

 The horse showed no other symptom save that of dragging 

 lameness of his hind parts, which afterwards became exces- 

 sive. Ten days succeeding his hurt, while under treatment 

 for it, the old horse was seized with "gripes,'^ which 

 resisted all remedy, and caused his death in seven hours. 

 The diaphragm was found ruptured ; and through the rent 

 had passed, into the thorax, the stomach and part of the 

 duodenum, causing hernia besides. The stomach was dis- 

 tended, and had at its fundus burst. The duodenum was, 

 by being displaced, twisted. For full particulars the 

 Journal can be consulted. M. Langwnard also reports a 

 case of strangulated inguinal hernia, in which, after death, 

 was discovered a rupture of the diaphragm. 



The nature of Mr. Cartwright's cases may be gathered 

 from the observations he has appended to them, which run 

 as follow : 



" The mare — the first case — had been most severely 

 worked for the last four or five months, and, lately, whilst 

 labouring under considerable catarrh. Her owner was in 

 the habit of knocking and kicking his horses about, and 

 driving occasionally at a greater rate than their strength 

 admitted of, and it is probable that her rib — which after 

 death was found fractured — was broken by such ill-usage, 

 and that peritonitis likewise was brought on by her being 

 kicked in the abdomen. Over-exertion and her excessive 



