Acute Peritonitis in Solipeds. 389 



abdominal wound which in man, ruminant, or pachyderm might 

 be viewed with confidence, must be treated as a very serious 

 matter in the horse. But though thus differing in degree, all ab- 

 dominal wounds must be considered as serious lesions. The 

 peritoneal sac is, like other serous sacs, a dependency of the 

 great lymphatic .sy.stem of vessels, and the liquid present in it in 

 health is, like the lymph, the mo.st favorable culture medium of 

 the body for microbian life, the greater the amount of such peri- 

 toneal fluid (as in infianimatory or other exudate) the more 

 favorable it becomes to its growth and diffusion, and finally the 

 enclosed intestine is teeming with micro-organisms, which, though 

 held in check by the healthy mucosa, are ready when any con- 

 gestion, inflammation or other morbid . process gives occasion, to 

 traverse these thin walls and start their deadly career in the 

 peritoneum. 



In every animal, therefore, but in solipeds above all, every pre- 

 caution should be taken against the infliction of accidental wounds 

 of the abdominal walls, and to remedy any serious derangement 

 of the digestive organs. Above all, operations that involve the 

 peritoneal cavity .should be made only under careful surgical 

 precautions. The introduction of pyogenic, septic or potentially 

 septic material from hands, head, beard, floating dust, unboiled 

 water, or surgical appliance of any kind, is a direct bid for a 

 fatal peritonitis. Next to this the greatest care must be exercised 

 to prevent unnecessary injury to the peritoneum or any abdomi- 

 nal organ, which would in any way impair its vital properties 

 and resisting power. Again, to leave blood or exudate of any 

 kind in the wounded peritoneum is a direct bid for the propaga- 

 tion of micro-organisms. These should be removed by means of 

 aseptic agents. Finally, in ca.se of enteric disease and abdominal 

 wounds the patient should be guarded against chill, which would 

 lower the vital and resisting powers and lay the system open to 

 microbian invasion. 



Treatment. The therapeutics of peritonitis furnishes a striking 

 example of the transforming influence of bacteriological discovery. 

 Systematic medical and veterinary works enjoin the time-honored 

 method of treatment by opium to check inte,stinal peristalsis and 

 the painful friction of inflamed surfaces on each other, and to 

 keep the organs quiescent until nature shall have time to subdue 



