Tympanitic Indigestion in the Rumen. Bloating. 105 



ment, held like a dagger, may be plunged at one blow through 

 the walls of the abdomen and rumen until stopped by the shield 

 on the cannula. The trochar is now withdrawn and the gas 

 escapes with a prolonged hiss. If the urgency of the case will 

 permit, the skin may be first incised with a lancet or pen knife, 

 and the point of the instrument having been placed on the ab- 

 dominal muscles, it is driven home by a blow of the opposite 

 palm. In the absence of the trochar the puncture may be suc- 

 cessfully made with a pocket knife or a pair of scissors, which 

 should be kept in the wound to maintain the orifice in the rumen 

 in apposition with that in the abdominal wall, until a metal tube 

 or quill can be introduced and held in the orifices. 



When the gas has escaped by this channel its further formation 

 can be checked by pouring one of the antiferments through the 

 cannula into the rumen. 



When the formation of an excess of gas has ceased, and the 

 resumption of easy eructation bespeaks the absence of further 

 danger, the cannula may be withdrawn and the wound covered 

 with tar or collodion. 



When the persistent formation of gas indicates the need of ex- 

 pulsion of offensive fermentescible matters, a full dose of salts 

 may be administered. If the presence of firmly impacted masses 

 can be detected, they may sometimes be broken up by a stout 

 steel rod passed through the cannula. If the solid masses prove 

 to be hair or woolen balls, rumenotomy is the only feasible means 

 of getting rid of them. 



In chronic tympany caused by structural diseases of the oesoph- 

 agus, mediastinal glands, stomach or intestines, permanent 

 relief can only be obtained by measures which will remove these 

 respective causes. 



