DIAPHRAGMATIC HERNIA. 407 



liable to rupture and laceration under violent efforts of body 

 or of respiration ; and when once a breacli has taken place, 

 the same inclination to roll forward will render the insinua- 

 tion of some viscus — intestine most likely, from that being 

 the most loosely attached — a highly probable consequence. 

 Such is the pathology of phrenic or diaphragmatic hernia. 

 It is possible for the hernia to happen from some separation 

 of the fasciculi of the muscle, or in consequence of dilatation 

 of some one of the natural passages through it ; though veteri- 

 nary annals, that I know of, furnish no such cases. Blows 

 upon the body, or sudden and violent falls of it, are the 

 ordinary causes of rupture or laceration of diaphragm ; and 

 then the hernia follows in the manner I have described. 



The Symptoms, when this hernia has happened, have 

 been found to be — as indeed might have been expected — a 

 compound of those of ruptured diaphragm wdth those of 

 other painful hernise ; and, by accurate observation of such 

 combined expressions of suffering, when present, must the 

 case be made out. There will be symptoms of violent colic, 

 and these symptoms may so simulate " gripes,^^ that unless 

 the history of the case incline us to think otherwise, the horse 

 may die under the belief of those in attendance on him, 

 that the case is nothing but colic ; at the same time there 

 will probably be some extraordinary agitation in the respira- 

 tion — some working of the flanks, more like broken-wind, 

 perhaps, than common violent breathing. The late Profes- 

 sor Sewell used to say, that in this complaint " the horse 

 usually sat upon his haunches like a dog,'^ a posture which 

 affords the intestines, as he very justly remarks, every facility 

 of rolling back again out of the chest into the belly : the cases, 

 however, which have been published do not appear to bear 

 out this observation. On the contrary,Mr. Daws says, in 

 rupture of the diaphragm, '' he has generally seen the horse 

 push his chest on the ground, and not sit upon his haunches. ^^ 

 Vomiting has been known to be present. 



The Hernia may not happen until some time after the 

 Rupture. A very interesting case, published by Mr. Cleaver, 

 V.S., in ' The Veterinarian ' for 1836, seems to show this. 



