INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. 519 



— corresponding to the high one in human surgery — is 

 stabbing the bladder with a straight trocar of sufficient 

 length immediately above and in front of the pubes, through 

 -the recti muscles. Taking into consideration the horizontal 

 posture of the animal, the comparative facility with which it 

 is practised, and the fact that punctured abdominal wounds 

 are not of that dangerous character they bear in man, there 

 appears to me reason to prefer the low to the intestinal 

 operation : at the same time I feel it my duty to state, that 

 this opinion has no other foundation than a theoretical one, 

 grounded upon anatomical knowledge, having always myself, 

 in practice, cut into the perinseum rather than have re- 

 course to the trocar at all. No one, I should imagine, 

 would like to risk casting a horse with a bladder distended 

 to bursting; in the erect position, supposing the rectum 

 to be the medium of puncture, the fluid would have to 

 ascend to escape ; whereas, through the pubes, the urine 

 would certainly flow away most readily. Mr. Cartwright, 

 who has penned some very sensible practical observations on 

 this subject in ^ The Veterinarian^ for 1831, apprehends 

 that some intestine might be wounded, and seems persuaded 

 that the peritoneum must be, in the pubal operation. Per- 

 haps, under ordinary circumstances, the membrane would be 

 likely to be so; but while the bladder continued in that 

 altered condition and situation which a surcharge of urine 

 gives it, I should not fear either of these consequences. 



INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. 



M. Canu (Pj^re), in 1815, met with inversion of the 

 viscus, in a mare, in parturition. The mare had, after a 

 severe and painful labour, brought forth a dead foal, which 

 had survived but half an hour ; and now exhibited a large 

 menabranous mass hanging out of her vulva. In the course of 

 the efforts she was constantly making, the ureters launched 

 forth a stream of urine to a considerable distance, which 

 convinced me that the bladder was in the ejected mass. 

 Being unable to afford relief through reduction, and inflam- 



