362 Veterinary Medicine. 



great prostration, depression and stupor, sunken, glazed eye with 

 dilated pupil, and cold sweats and extremities bespeak collapse 

 or general infection. 



Diagnosis is rarely certain. The sudden onset, extreme vio- 

 lence of the systems, and rapidly fatal progress are significant 

 and in exceptional cases rectal exploration will detect obstruction 

 in the rectum or floating colon, or a tympanitic condition of the 

 pelvic flexure. 



Treatmeut. A rational treatment is only possible in those rare 

 cases in which the diagnosis is certain. When the lesion can be 

 reached in the rectum or adjacent part of the floating colon, the 

 oiled hand may be made to drag on the interior of the viscus so 

 as to restore it to its normal position. 



Cadeac has had recoveries from supposed volvulus by the use 

 of eserine hypodermically, and Trasbot by the use of castor oil 

 and it is just possible that active peristalsis, and plentitude of 

 the bowel running into the volvulus, may serve to unwind slight 

 cases. When the diagnosis is certain and the case as usual, in- 

 tractable, the resort of laparotomy and the attempt at untwisting 

 is fully warranted. The case is a fatal one if unrelieved. 



VOLVULUS IN RUMINANTS. 



This condition is almost unknown in ruminants, Reichert re- 

 cording a single case of volvulus of the ileum involving 8 inches 

 of the gut. The reason for the habitual immunity is to be found 

 in the arrangement of the small intestine at the end of a mesen- 

 tery which is strengthened and stiffened by the winding folds 

 of the colon until twisting is practically impossible. There re- 

 mains, therefore, only the floating colon and rectum at all ex- 

 posed to the lesion. The isolated case of Reichert only proves 

 the rule. 



