374 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



obviously to be assigned for the prevalence of inguinal and 

 scrotal hernia in them : while, on the other hand, the 

 little we are troubled with the disease in our own land is a 

 proof that the practice of castration operates as a pretty 

 certain prophylactic against its occurrence. And when we 

 do meet with the disease, it is not in geldings but in stone- 

 horses, and particularly in such as have raced or been in 

 trainiug. This accounts for army practice seldom producing 

 such cases ; at the same time that it affords a strong argu- 

 ment for a thorough acquaintance with the subject on the 

 part of the veterinarian whose sphere of practice is likely 

 to embrace any racing or training establishments. 



Why many more Men than Horses become ruptured 

 Girard thus learnedly and satisfactorily explains : 



Animals are much seldomer the subjects of hernia than men, not less 

 on account of the horizontal position of their bodies than from the dispo- 

 sition of the muscles and fibrous envelopes forming the inferior parietes 

 of the abdomen. In man, the intestinal mass is bearing downwards, and 

 particularly upon the inguinal regions, where the openings — the ab- 

 dominal ring and crural arch — are situated. In quadrupeds, on the con-~ 

 trary, in consequence of the oblique inclination, forwards and downwards, 

 of the floor of the belly from the flank to the brisket, the intestinal mass 

 gravitates against the diaphragm, pushing it forward and occasionally 

 rupturing it. The resistance afibrded by the parietes of the belly is 

 likewise greater, owing to the increased density and peculiar disposition 

 of the coverings of the abdomen, the faschia superjicialis being thicker, 

 more elastic, and more developed than in man, and particularly towards 

 the pubes, and being supported by the panniculus carnosus, an envelope 

 that does not exist in man ; added to which — not to mention the advan- 

 tages arising from the oblique and straight muscles, which latter are 

 much broader than in man — the faschia transversalis is considerably 

 stronger and more expanded. Connect with these facts the practice of 

 castration at an early age, one consequence of which is the contraction 

 of the inguinal canal, and there will appear sufficient to account for the 

 comparative exemption of the horse from inguinal rupture, and at the 

 same time for the unheard-of occurrence of the species denominated 

 femoral. 



Since the foregoing was written, such an "unheard-of" case has hap- 

 pened to M. Seon, Veterinary Surgeon to the Garde Royal. He was 

 called, while on the march, to a mare with a swelling as large as his fist 



