UMBILICAL HERNIA. S95 



or fourth day, a second ligature may be necessary, from the 

 first having become loose and ineffectual. In one case I was 

 unsuccessful : tetanus occurred three weeks after the opera- 

 tion.^^ " I have never seen a case of strangulated umbilical 

 hernia : I do not know of there being one on record.^' — 

 ' Veterinarian/ vol. xii. 



Of Fistulous Umbilical Hernia, and consequent artificial anus, a novel and 

 interesting case is placed on record by Mr. Dick, in 'The Yeterinariais' 

 for 1833, The horse, four years old, was bought by Mr, Dick at Kinross 

 Market, with a considerable enlargement of the umbilicus upon him. He 

 did his work for some time, but it was with stiffness and unwillingness. 

 Shortly afterwards he was seized with a " ting," and a farrier was sent 

 for, under whom he got better. He was put to work again, but proved 

 still stiff and unwilling. Shortly after, " an opening formed at the navel, 

 bj which the whole of the fasces were passed off." Mr. Thompson, V.S., 

 Redstone, was sent for, who " stitched up the opening, which was large 

 enough to admit a person's fist, and applied a roller with a pad of tow 

 over it ; also occasionally adhesive plaister." " Adhesion took place, and 

 granulations formed very rapi(ily for some time ; but a very small opening 

 remained, which seemed extremely obstinate, yet was making a little pro- 

 gress, and to all appearance would have been entirely closed in a short 

 time," — when he died. The intestines proved in many places perforated 

 by ulceration, apparently the effects of lumbrici. There seemed to be no 

 disease about the umbilical opening, except adhesion between the intes- 

 tines and the parietes of the abdomen. I found it to be a part of the 

 ileum that had fallen into the opening, about a foot from the caecum. 

 Nature had formed a tube of about two inches long, quite distinct from 

 the ileum, by way of a rectum ; but when it was a good deal healed up, 

 air seemed to be sucked in by it, and passed off per anum. In drinking, 

 the water passed off by it without any of the aliment being mixed 

 with it : it seemed almost as clear when passed as when drunk. If he 

 got the benefit of his meat, he received no benefit of his drink, for it 

 passed off as fast as he drank it ; and from this cause, apparently, he be- 

 came very much emaciated. During the time Mr. Thomson attended 

 him, he showed no symptom of disease, save a slight attack of gripes. 

 Before death, the wound became reduced to the size of a quill, discharg- 

 ing white mucus, but no fa3ces. He was allowed only two pints of water 

 a day, with some pea-meal, with a small quantity of hay. When Mr. 

 Thomson first saw the horse, he gave a clyster of water-gruel, which 

 occasioned much inconvenience, " seemingly by emptying the posterior 

 bowels too much, as flatus passed, seemingly, from the orifice of the anus, 

 and he worked like a pair of bellows for four hours." Mr. Thompson 



