RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH. 269 



Some time after he manifested symptoms of uneasiness and 

 pain^ stretching out his legs and arching his back^ but ap- 

 pearing relieved by placing his fore limbs upon higher ground 

 than his hind quarters. He was evidently experiencing 

 great pain in his abdomen, and this appeared to be aug- 

 mented by every movement he made, and by the least 

 pressure of the hand upon the belly, which was perceptibly 

 enlarged. Pulse slow and very small. At length, convulsions 

 ensued; his neck became curved, and his head inverted 

 between his fore legs ; the pulse imperceptible ; the respira- 

 tion stertorous; upon which death quickly followed. The 

 intestines were found distended with gas, and in general 

 inflamed, as well as the peritoneum; and effused into the 

 abdominal cavity were twenty pints of liquid, with some 

 alimentary matters, of which latter there were also some 

 between the folds of the omentum. Pyloric portion of the 

 stomach empty; within the other was food, enveloped in 

 mucous secretion. At one inch from the pylorus, ex- 

 tending to the middle of the great curvature, was a rupture 

 through all the coats, eight inches in length, with borders 

 thickened and blackish. The other viscera presented nothing 

 noticeable. 



Lafosse has given it as his opinion, that, most commonly, 

 rupture follows some antecedent disease, some chronic 

 inflammation ; of which the following cases are adduced, by 

 Dupuy, by way of proof : — 



An entire horse died after a few hours of suff'ering from 

 stomach-staggers. The stomach exhibited a rupture around 

 its great curvature, near the pylorus. The peritoneal coat 

 was more extensively torn than the muscular, the muscular 

 than the internal. The omentum retained the extravasated 

 aliments, and looked like the stomach itself. Liquid was 

 eff'used into the cavities of the abdomen and pelvis. In 

 opening the body of another entire horse that died after 

 violent convulsions, the rent was found in the right sac of 

 the stomach, along the great curvature, and close to the 

 pylorus; its borders were irregular and bloody; the aperture 

 in the peritoneum was less extensive than in the other 



