CALCULUS INTUSSUSCEPTION. 



203 



the consequence is, that their teeth are soon worn down, and there are 

 too many cases on record in which the stone has been swallowed. It has 

 been impeded in its progress through the intestinal canal, inflammation 

 has ensued, arid the animal has been lost, after having suffered the most 

 creadful torture. 



Professor Simonds relates a case in which a dog was thus destroyed. 

 The animal for some days previous to his admission into the hospital had 

 refused his food, and there was obstinate constipation of the bowels, to 

 remove which aperient medicine had been given. The pulse was acce- 

 lerated, there was distension of the abdomen with evident tenderness on 

 pressure, the extremities were cold, no faeces were voided, and he occa- 

 sionally vomited. Some aperient medicine was given, which was retained 

 on the stomach, and enemas and external stimulants were resorted to, but 

 two days afterwards he died. 



The intestines were examined, and the offending body was found to be a 

 common pebble. The dog had long been accustomed to fetch stones out 

 of the water. One of these stories had passed through the stomach intc 

 the intestines, and, after proceeding some distance along them, had been 

 impacted there. The inflammation was most intense so far as the stone 

 had gone ; but in the part of the intestine to which it had not reached 

 there was not any. This was an interesting and instructive case, and 

 should make its due impression. 



Another account of the strange contents of the intestines of a bitch may 

 bo here introduced. 



A valuable pointer-bitch was sent to the infirmary of Mr. Godwin of 

 Lichfield. She presented a very emaciated appearance, and had done so 

 for four or five months. Her evacuations for a day or two were verj 

 thin and copious, and afterwards for several days nothing was passed. 

 When pressing the abdomen with both hands, a hard substance was dis- 

 tinctly felt in the inferior part of the umbilical region. She was destroyed, 

 and, upon post-mortem examination, a calculus was discovered in the 

 iloum about the size and shape of a hen's egg, the nucleus of which was a 

 portion of hair. The coats of the intestines were considerably thickened 

 and enlarged, so as to form a kind of sac for its retention. Anterior to 

 this was another substance, consisting of a ball of hair, covered with a 

 layer of earthy matter about the eighth of an inch thick, and next to this 

 another ball of hair of less dimensions, intermixed with a gritty substance. 

 Tlie stomach contained a large quantity of hair, and a portion of the 

 omentum, about the size of a crown piece, was thickly studded with small 

 w lite calculi, the largest about the size of a pea, and exceedingly hard. 



INTUSSUSCEPTION. 



If peritonitis inflammation is neglected, or drastic purgatives are too 

 ohen and too plentifully administered, a peculiar contraction of the mus- 

 ci lar membrane of the intestine takes place, and one portion of the bowel 

 is received within another there is intussusception. In most cases, a 

 portion of the anterior intestine is received into that which is posterior 

 to it. Few of us have opened a dog- that had been labouring under this 

 peculiar affection without being struck with the collapsed state of the 

 canal in various parts, and in some much more than in others. Immedi- 

 ately posterior to this collapsed portion, it is widened to a considerable 



