EUPTUKED STOMACH. 271 



roll, and then suddenly to be seized with symptoms of vomit- 

 ing, and food passes freely out at the nostrils. Exhaustion 

 speedily ensues, and though the animal makes a violent 

 effort not to fall, and even catches at the manger or stall post 

 with his teeth, he nevertheless sinks to the ground not to 

 rise again. Mr John Field, in referring to a case in which 

 frequent retching was observed, says : " Prom this last symp- 

 tom I inferred rupture of the stomach, although nothing 

 had been seen to have been ejected, and on this account no 

 medicine was given by the mouth." I have quoted, at page 

 153, from Mr John Field's Records, a case to show that 

 vomiting might occur without rupture ; and other cases might 

 be brought forward to show that rupture is occasionally not 

 indicated by rejection from the stomach. Mr Percivall says: 

 " I remember the late Mr John Field observing to me one 

 day, that he never had witnessed a case of ruptured stomach 

 without vomiting occurring prior to death, which he thought 

 very remarkable. The trooper, however, of my regiment, 

 who glutted himself overnight, and died the following morn- 

 ing, did not exhibit this symptom." There is no doubt, 

 however, that the rupture of the stomach is one of the con- 

 ditions favourable to free exit of food through the cardiac 

 orifice, and out by the mouth. (See page 154.) 



Though I have here referred to ruptured stomach as a 

 result of colic, there are many circumstances under which it 

 may be observed. Dupuy mentions a case due to a draught 

 of water on a full stomach, and this is not an unfrequent 

 cause ; also blows, falls, and violent straining, which Mr Per- 

 civall has noticed in his Hippopathology. 



RTJPTUKED COLON. 



As the stomach or other hollow organ, so may the intestine 

 be paralysed by over-distention, and its muscular coat will 



