396 The Management and Diseases of the Dog. 



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long as in the other, but the hernial sac was considerably 

 thicker, and more numerous in' its layers. On the 25th, 

 exactly a fortnight afterwards, the last stitch was removed, 

 and on the loth of September the bitch was perfectly well, 

 in good condition, and in excellent spirits. 



The diet was the same as that prescribed after the first 

 operation. Probably it would have been considered more 

 scientific had I pared the edges of the ruptured peri- 

 toneum ; but I preferred — as I do in similar cases in other 

 animals — trusting to lymph effusion, and its subsequent 

 organization, rather than incurring the risk of producing 

 general and acute peritonitis, which paring an old ruptured 

 peritoneum would tend to do. 



It is perhaps scarcely necessary to point to the obvious 

 cause of this double rupture ; viz., that the peritoneum 

 was broken in the act of tearing away the other dog, while 

 the man's foot across the bitch's abdomen held her firmly 

 down ; a cruel, but I trust an unintentional, procedure. 



Since the above record, mdny cases of ventral hernia 

 have come under my notice. 



DOUBLE FEMORAL HERNIA. 



Last autumn, 1887, 1 was requested to attend a bitch 

 in London, stated to have been ruptured on both sides, 

 and with an inverted womb. She had previously at 

 various times been under my treatment for bronchial 

 asthma. Besides being asthmatical, she was aged and 

 very obese. On my arrival, I found a large femoral 

 hernia close to the groin on either side ; but no uterine 

 inversion. A vaginal prolapse had probably been 

 observed when straining, and mistaken for the womb. 

 The abdomen, being very large and its walls thin at the 

 seat of rupture, had most likely given way, in a violent 

 paroxysm of coughing. , 



