378 DISEASES OF THE INTESTINES. 



the rectum seeks the internal ring ; while the other, pursuing the course 

 of the cord on the side affected, is pushed up to the external ring ; and 

 thus, in the natural state, the opposed fingers may be made nearly to 

 meet, and the dimensions and condition of the apertures ascertained. 

 However small the protruded portion of gut, the operator will be able to 

 detect the bubonocele, and even to reduce it, by proceeding, secundum 

 artem, with such necessary precautions as will be hereafter pointed out. 

 This exploration may be conducted in the standing posture ; though it 

 will be prosecuted with more facility and certainty should the patient be 

 cast, which, indeed, is by far the preferable mode of proceeding. 



Should hernia be founds and not prove at once reducible, 

 M. Girard recommends, to be practised in the following 

 manner — 



THE TAXIS. — The horse is to be thrown upon the unaffected side ; 

 and, with one hind leg drawn and fixed forward, in the same manner as 

 for castration, he is to be turned upon his back, and maintained in that 

 position by bundles of straw, with heaps of straw placed underneath him 

 to raise the croup. With both arms well oiled, or smeared with some 

 mucilaginous decoction, the operator will now commence his exploration, 

 taking care to empty the rectum as he proceeds. Should he find that 

 the gut passing through the ring is neither strictured nor strangulated, 

 he may endeavour to disengage the hernial portion by gently drawing it 

 within the cavity, at the same time aiding its retraction by pushing it 

 inward, with the other hand within the sheath. Should he experience 

 much difficulty in that attempt he is to desist ; violence being often the 

 forerunner of strangulation and gangrene. The practitioner must bear 

 in mind, also, that although he has succeeded in the reduction, unless 

 this be followed by castration, and that immediate protrusion is 

 likely to recur, and may do so even the moment after the animal has 

 risen, Mr. Molyneux recommends that the patient be blooded largely 

 prior to being cast for the taxis, with a view of enfeebling the muscular 

 energy ; and, for my own part, I quite subscribe to his practice. 



The Feel of the Tumour is soft, more or less voluminous and elastic, 

 and (when the horse is coughed ?) salient, or rebounding under the 

 pressure of the fingers, or else it is substantial and weighty. It either 

 fluctuates or pits, according as it contains gaseous or stercoral matters, 

 the latter giving it at times a solid, irregular, lumpy feel. When the 

 gut is so closely embraced around the neck of its peritoneal sheath that 

 all passage through it is interrupted, the hernia is said to be — 



Strangulated : an event also indicated by the rapid aggravation of all 

 the symptoms. Sometimes it liappens that the gut is merely nip[)ed or 



