INTRO-SUSCEPTION. 339 



medicine ; at other times worked their own reUef. The 

 attacks afterwards became more alarming ; the animal lost 

 flesh, and was no longer capable of work. In December, 

 he died. On opening the body, a strange "scene of entangled 

 intestines'^ presented. Many of the convolutions of the small 

 intestines were " entangled by three distinct cords, consisting 

 of torn portions of omentum, which membrane was very 

 much thickened." Though " so much fettered,^' no strangu- 

 lation appeared. A strong, dense, firm ligature, of a dark 

 colour, enfolded the base of the csecum, which was formed 

 by the mesocolon. " Between this ligature and the caput 

 colly to the left side, was a rupture, two inches in diameter;" 

 through which quantities of liquid feculent matter had escaped. 



INTRO-SUSCEPTION. 

 Intus or Intro-susception means the slipping of one 

 portion of intestine into another — commonly into the one 

 behind it. In the human subject, especially in children, 

 this appears to be an accident by no means uncommon, and 

 one that happens and rights itself again without any 

 knowledge on the part of the subject in whom it occurs. I 

 would not take upon myself to say that such vagaries were 

 not played among the bowels of horses ; though it seems 

 unlikely that they often occur from the circumstance of our 

 meeting so rarely with anything of the kind in our post- 

 mortem inspections. Foals are most liable to it. Mr. 

 Cartwright attended one, five weeks old, for quick respiration 

 and pulse, and dropsical swelling of one arm, of which he 

 appeared to die. On opening the abdomen, however, Mr. C. 

 was surprised to find extensive intro-susception of the ileum. 

 The small intestines are oftenest intro-suscepted : the French 

 veterinarians have recorded some cases. In another case 

 mentioned by the same gentleman, the small intestines 

 were found thickened in substance, and were " in twelve or 

 fifteen places intro-suscepted," A third case, of a foal only 

 " a day old," in which, about four yards from the stomach, 

 " a foot of small intestine was drawn completely into another 

 portion of gut. It had descended from above into the 



