IMPERFORATION OF THE ANUS. 761 



In those female animals in which the rectum communicates with the 

 vagina, Rainard makes the following remarks with regard to operation. 

 As the part of the vagina which has the opening into the rectum is never 

 very deep, a half S-curved sound is introduced by one of its ends into the 

 normal track, and pushed into the rectum until it reaches the cul-de-sac in it. 

 With a bistoury, an incision is then made where the anus should be ; the 

 skin and subcutaneous connective tissue being divided, the index-finger 

 is passed into the wound in search of the curved sound in the rectum. 

 When met with, an assistant takes the sound, while the blade of the bis- 

 toury is made to glide over the nail of the index-finger, and the intestine 

 opened by it. The same finger is plunged into this new opening, and 

 serves to guide the bistoury in dilating the incision as much as may be 

 deemed necessary. After the skin and connective tissue is incised, a 

 trocar of sufficient size may be employed to puncture the intestine. 



Landel [yournal Vetirinaire ^elge, vol. i., p. 95) met with a case of this kind in a 

 Cow, aged one and a half year. On examining the creature, he found that the anus was 

 occluded, and that the vagina contained fluid faeces which had passed into it by a nar- 

 row opening leading to a canal communicating with the rectum. Landel decided to 

 make an artificial anus. He made an incision in the perinaeum about two and a half 

 inches in length, through which the faeces escaped. On the following days enemas were 

 administered ; the margin of the wound tumefied slightly ; the recto-vaginal fistula be- 

 came obliterated, and the young animal made a perfect recovery. 



From among many recorded instances of anal atresia, we select the 

 following as illustrativ^e : 



1. Rossignol (Rainard, Op. ciL, vol. ii., p. 492) states that a calf, soon after birth, did 

 not offer any trace of an anus. Hoping that the ail-de-sac formed by the rectum was 

 not too distant from the perineum, and that he might feel it when the calf attempted to 

 defecate, he gave it a dose of almond and castor-oil. In a few hours violent colicky 

 pains seized the creature, and nothing could allay them ; no bulging appeared at the 

 perinaeum, and death soon ensued. At the autopsy, made next day, the rectum was 

 found to be completely absent ; the colon terminated in a large dilatation the size of a 

 hen's egg, in the neighborhood of the left kidney, and from it was a transparent liga- 

 mentous prolongation which was attached to the commencement of the sacrum. The 

 colon was congested and full of foetid gas and meconium. 



2. Ammon {yahresbericht der Miinchener Zeutral Thierarzneischtde, 1846-47, p. 22) 

 mentions that a new-born calf sucked for a day, when symptoms of constipation-colic 

 were manifested. The enemas administered did not appear to penetrate as far as usual, 

 and they and other treatment afforded no relief. In another day vomiting ensued, and 

 in thirty-six hours from the appearance of the colic death ensued. The digestive organs 

 were found healthy as far as the colon, which terminated in a cul-de-sac; the urinary 

 bladder was absent, and the ureters terminated in what should have been the rectum. 



3. Dinter (Sachsischer yahresbericht, 1873, P ^7) operated on a new-born sow which 

 had atresia of the anus, but yet no faeces were passed. The creature died in eight 

 weeks (?) after birth, without any defecation. ' The caecum and large intestine were 

 found to be enormously dilated. 



4. Hartmann [CEsterreichischer Vierteljahresschrift f. Wiss. Veterinarkunde, 1874) re- 

 ports that some hours after birth, a foal was observed to have no anal aperture. Hart- 

 mann was shortly after called in, and it was decided that an artificial opening should be 

 established. An incision was made through the skin along the median line of the per- 

 ineum, and the connective tissue separated, but the finger could not discover the ex- 

 tremity of the rectum. Enemas were tried, but without success In the pelvis, at a . 

 distance of about four inches from the incision, the finger came upon a sac with a con- 

 vex extremity, and containing a faecal mass. 



The first longitudinal incision was enlarged by a second transverse one, and then the 

 finger could explore three-fourths of the extremity of the sac. From it the meconium 

 was passed in small quantity, but it was eventually completely evacuated by the acf 

 ministration of enemas. Into the aperture, a bougie covered with lead ointment was 

 introduced. 



On the fourth day the opening was nearly closed, and though various measures were 



