INGUINAL HERNIA. 383 



While so recent that the tumour is yet only visible at certain times, and 

 the animal's health remains undisturbed, nothing more is commonly done 

 than bathing the animal in some river, or making use of astringent appli- 

 cations or injections. Unfortunately, veterinary surgery has not yet 

 invented any sort of ti'uss or suspensory bandage that can be worn. 

 Sothysoll, indeed, says, at page 266, speaking of " a remedy for a rupture 

 or hustenness, that he knew a very industrious groom who invented a 

 kind of truss for husten horses." 



Reduction hy the Taxis. — A manual operation for the return of the gut, 

 the nature of which and mode of procedure have been already described 

 at page 378, can only be practised with success so long as the ring 

 remains in its natural condition, and while the hernia is recent, and there 

 exists no stricture or impediment to the retraction of the intestine. In a 

 case where the neck of the sac is become enlarged, the reduction, of 

 course, will be readily effected ; but it can prove only temporary, unless 

 followed up by the operation of castration, the only means we possess of 

 causing contraction or obliteration, more or less, of the canal. If, after 

 a thorough examination of the parts, reduction by the taxis be considered 

 practicable, no time ought to be lost. Only let the operator remember, 

 that all force in drawing in the gut is to be avoided, otherwise the conse- 

 quences may be — as they but too often have been — inflammation and 

 gangrene, if not rupture. 



After the Operation of the Taxis should there appear any reason 

 for apprehending a return of the hernia, either from the enlarged condi- 

 tion of the ring or previous habits of colic, M. Girard recommends keep- 

 ing the animal cast upon his back for some time, to give the o-ut time to 

 recover its proper place and position ; and, after the horse has risen, to 

 put him in a stable so prepared that his hind parts may stand elevated as 

 much as possible above the fore; also to give him nought but straw and 

 water gruel. He likewise recommends bloodletting, enemata, and fomen- 

 tations to the belly. In one case, in which the gut had returned several 

 times after reduction, M. Girard succeeded with the T bandage. 



OPERATION FOR SCROTAL HERNIA IN STAL- 

 LIONS. — This being the simplest form of operation with 

 the knife, and many of the directions given for it being ap- 

 plicable to the others, our author speaks of it first. 



Of these hernias some are reducible by the texis ; others irreducible : 

 their reduction, however, rarely proves but temporary, the operation of 

 castration (a testicule convert) being required to complete the cure. 

 Furthermore, the hernia may be simple, or it may be complicated with 

 hydrocele, sarcocele, varicocele, and adhesion. 



