THE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 375 



expulsive efforts, and when left to himself he lies down and 

 rolls, &c. 



Diagnostic. — Meteorization consecutive on indigestion. 



Prescription. — V. S. ; continual walking exercise; simple 

 clysters; drink of assafcetida 15 grammes, (about 3 iv\,) with a 

 like quantity of camphor. No relief being afforded in an hour 

 afterwards, a drink of aloetic oil, composed of a pint and a half 

 of oil with 10 grammes (about 5 j) of Barbadoes aloes. 



Two hours after the administration of this drink, there had 

 been no evacuation of either solid or gaseous matter from the 

 anus. The pulse had become small and depressed ; the skin 

 cold ; the respiration anxious, sighing, and short. Asphyxia 

 threatening, the indication is, if we would prevent it, and so save 

 the animal, we must do something instantly. Puncture of the 

 caecum was determined on. 



The skin was penetrated with a sharp, straight bistoury at the 

 most salient part in the flank, about the middle of an imaginary 

 straight line extended horizontally from the angle of the ileum 

 to the last rib, and, for want of a larger trocar, we made use of 

 one of Guerin's, which is used for injections into the joints. 

 This instrument was plunged perpendicularly, with one thrust, 

 through the muscular parietes of the abdomen, sc as to penetrate 

 the arch of the caecum, which it did with facility, the resistance 

 of the skin having been previously surmounted by the incision 

 made by the bistoury. The stillette was no sooner withdrawn 

 from the wound than the gas made an impetuous eruption to es- 

 cape, followed by frothy matters, and spreading around an em- 

 pyreumatic vegetable odor. 



At length, this current was on a sudden interrupted, on account 

 of the canula being so short that it slipped out of the gut as soon 

 as the latter came to subside and retire from proximity with the 

 parietes. This first result obtained by puncture proving insuffi- 

 cient, we were compelled to renew the operation. A first incision 

 was made through the skin in a part of the flank nearer to the 

 lumbar vetebrae, and again the trocar was plunged through the 

 abdominal muscles in a direction nearly parallel with the trans- 

 verse lumbar processes. In this way the instrument penetrated 

 the most prominent part of the caecal arch, and at a point where 



