376 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



Hernia may arise from Mechanical Injury : of this 

 the following affords a good illustration. In 1820, Mr. C. 

 Percivall went to see a black cart colt w^lio had received a 

 kick five days before from another at straw-yard. He found 

 a large swelling along the posterior and inferior part of the 

 belly, which was soft and yielding, as though it had been a 

 bladder distended with air. He easily reduced it, and ap- 

 plied a compress and roller, bled, and gave some aloes. In 

 three weeks, though considerably diminished in volume, the 

 intestine was still very perceptible. ''After this,'^ adds Mr. 

 Percivall, '' I blistered the part, and certainly with good 

 effect ; though the scrotum ever afterwards remained hernial/^ 



Stallions are the ordinary Subjects of this affection, especially those in 

 the habit of covering. Geldings rarely show this hernia (owing probably 

 to the contraction and partial obliteration of the apertures and passages 

 through which it comes), and M. Girard has never seen it in a mare : one 

 obvious reason for which exemption is the comparative narrowness of 

 the abdominal ring in the female, the round ligament being inconsider- 

 able in volume contrasted with the spermatic cord. The presence of 

 the uterus and vagina, together with the greater elevation of the pelvis 

 in the mare, will also serve to explain this — the bowels in her body being 

 necessarily thrown still more forward against the diaphragm. 



Notwithstanding these impediments, however, the occur- 

 rence is possible, as is satisfactorily shown by a case re- 

 lated in 'The Veterinarian ' for 1830, by Mr. Proctor. 



Peculiarities. — This herriia may exist with or without visible tumour ; 

 and may either be acute or chronic^ simple or strangulated^ continued or 

 intermittent. In some cases there exists thickening of the membranes, 

 adhesion of the coverings of the hernia to one another, occasionally to 

 the intestine within them. In other instances hernia is complicated with 

 hydrocele, the tumour assuming another shape and acquiring considerable 

 magnitude. Besides these differences, the hernia may be what is called 

 latent., i. e., imperceptible, at least to the view, in consequence of having 

 protruded no farther than the inguinal canal, in which state it is named 

 BUBONOCELE : thougli whcu it pervades the canal and descends into the 

 scrotum, it takes the appellation of oscheocele. Either of these forms 

 may be recent or inveterate., reducible or irreducible. Hernia very rarely 

 exists on both sides. It occurs oftenest on the right — a circumstance 



