UMBILICAL HERNIA. 393 



time, obliteration of the vessels of the cord. Should closure 

 of the aperture not happen in due season, a portion of omen- 

 tum, or knuckle of intestine, or both, is very apt to get 

 pressed into it, and, for a time, to become imprisoned 

 therein; thus constituting the hernia in question. I have 

 not been in the way myself of seeing much of these acci- 

 dents, although they must be common enough in large 

 breeding establishments ; I shall, therefore, betake myself 

 for information to Hurtrel d^Arboval, and to such British 

 writers as have published on the subject. 



We learn from D'Arboval that exomphalus may either be congenital or 

 accidental. The first is observable at the moment of birth, or speedily 

 after. In the latter case the protrusion arises from the giving way, even 

 after the navel is once closed, of that still lax and weak part, to the down- 

 ward pressure of the viscera ; a failure to which the animal is liable even 

 up to his third year. The tumour at the umbilicus is soft, either oblong 

 or flattened, and susceptible of augmentation on any violent effort ; and, 

 within the skin, possesses a sac. When omentum only is protruded, it 

 has a doughy feel, wanting the elasticity conveyed by contained intes- 

 tine. The intestine displaced is a portion either of the caecum or colon ? 

 those being the lowermost guts. There is nothing dangerous about this 

 hernia. Sometimes indeed, though rarely, it will disappear again of its 

 own accord : when it does not, it may give rise to occasional colic, as well 

 as incapacitate the animal for any kind of work ; or it may augment in 

 volume, and so become dangerous. On these accounts we ought not to 

 trust wholly to nature for a cure. 



The diagnostic between contained omentum and intestine is not always 

 easy, and particularly when the tumour is but small. Nor is it of any 

 great deal of consequence ; our object being, whatever the hernial sub- 

 stance, to return it at once into the belly. 



Reduction. — The animal having undergone preparation some days be- 

 forehand, by a suitable diet, is to be cast, turned upon his back, and 

 while supported in that position, to have his hind legs bound together, 

 and his fore legs likewise ; and afterwards to have them, thus bound in 

 pairs, extended apart from each other, in order to afford space for the 

 operator, and facilitate the return of the hernial viscera. The taxis is 

 now to be practised secundum artem., drawing out the skin at the same 

 time that manipulation is practised to force up the hernia. The reduc- 

 tion effected, the skin is to be again pinched up and drawn out, and con- 

 fined in the fold into which it is drawn eitlier by clams placed upon the 

 duplicatures of the fold, or by sutures run through it, as close as possible to 



