RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH 71 



may occur with the stomach wall in one of two con- 

 ditions. Either the tunics are in a state of health, or 

 they are suffering from the ulcerated and atrophied con- 

 dition occasioned by the inroads of parasites. 



We may take it from this that when the stomach walls 

 are weakened by previous disease an attack of simple 

 colic may be quite sufficient to bring about the rupture. 

 In the paroxysms of pain the animal flings himself 

 violently to the ground, and the mischief is done ; in 

 which instance the case, though finally diagnosed as 

 ruptured stomach, is primarily looked upon as simple in 

 its nature, owing to the regularly intermittent character 

 of the pains. It is, in fact, first put down as, what it 

 really is, a simple attack of colic, the rupture occurring 

 afterwards. At times in his career every practitioner is 

 bound to make that — I was almost calling it ' mis- 

 take.' He knows himself that it was a correct statement 

 of the case as it first presented itself to him. When 

 rupture suddenly changes his case from a simple to a 

 fatal nature, it depends entirely upon his standing with 

 his client and his amount of ready tact whether the 

 veterinarian retires from the situation in ignominy or 

 emerges therefrom with credit. I have not much hesita- 

 tion myself in declaring this to be one of the rare causes 

 of this lesion. Nevertheless, it occurs with sufficient 

 frequency to confound our carefully-laid prognosis in 

 other cases. 



In those instances where the rupture is primarily pro- 

 duced by previous enormous tympany, the pains, almost 

 from the very outset of the case, are agonizing and con- 

 tinuous. 



Our case of ruptured stomach, then, may be ushered 

 in with either intermittent or continuous pain. Once 

 established, however, rupture of the stomach offers 



