374 THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 



coming in contact with the integuments. This is repeated on the 

 other side, and the operation is finished. The horse is generally 

 fettered by a rope from the neck, secured to each hind leg ; he 

 has also a twitch on the nose. This operation, when performed in 

 a skilful manner, is, probably, superior to that recommended by 

 White, which leaves a large cicatrix, very objectionable to Ameri- 

 can horsemen. It not unfrequently happens that horses lose an 

 enormous quantity of blood after the operation ; but that results 

 from want of anatomical knowledge. The coccygeal arteries are 

 severed, which the surgeon knows how to avoid. Amateur oper- 

 ators often find that the subject of their experiment is seized with 

 locked-jaw ; and in other cases the tail curves laterally towards 

 the body. In the former, some unnecessary mangling has been 

 performed, and in the latter case, one of the curvatores coccygis 

 has been partly or wholly severed, which allows the associate 

 muscle on the other side to draw the tail that way. Hence the 

 necessity for skilful operators. 



METEORIZATIOX. — {Tympanic Slate of the Abdomen.) 



Meteorization is a tympanitic state of the abdomen, that takes 

 place in acute diseases suddenly and unexpectedly, as does the 

 appearance of a meteor in the heavens. — Hooper. 



The following article is translated by Mr. Percivall from the 

 Rec. de Med. Vet. 



Puncture of the Ccecum. — ( Cure.) — A light harness geld- 

 ing, seven years old, after having eaten a good allowance of oats 

 and bran, was employed to draw a load of dung from Paris to 

 Creteil. He had no sooner arrived when he was attacked with 

 violent colics ; his belly became rapidly blown out, when, in 

 consequence of suffocation being threatened, the carter imme- 

 diately brought him to the veterinary school. 



On his arrival his respiration was highly accelerated ; nostrils 

 dilated ; countenance anxious ; flank so blown out that the pro- 

 cess of the ileum is almost effaced ; pulse very small, quick, and 

 wiry, &c. Rectal exploration discovered that the large intes- 

 tines contained but little solid matter, but were mostly distend- 

 ed with gas. From time to time the animal made violent 



