122 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
passed a curb-chain which he had swallowed; the dog of which a report 
was made by Leblanc, passed a stone of large dimensions ; that of 
Mathis, after violent fits of colic expelled “the cork of a champagne 
bottle.” When the dimensions are too great, the foreign body is 
arrested, and may give rise to rabid symptoms; the phenomena, 
however, of deep depression generally predominate. If the body 
become encysted, it soon produces severe inflammation and sphacel of 
the intestinal walls, if it is not removed by laparotomy. (Noirit, 
Felizet, Degive, Frohner).* 
Sharp bodies, when introduced into the digestive canal, end by 
implanting themselves in its walls and pass through them more or less 
rapidly. Passing through the cesophagus, they may injure the anterior 
aorta (Olivier) or the posterior (Daigney), give rise to an aneurism 
(Olivier), or to a fatal hemorrhage. In ruminants, they pass through 
the rumen or the reticulum, and, according to the direction they take, 
reach the liver, the spleen, the abdominal walls, the diaphragm, heart, 
lungs, muscles of the shoulder or of the arm, the vertebral column, and 
eventhe spinal cord. A foreign body is the common cause of traumatic 
pericarditis of cattle. Guillaumin, Robinson, Aubry, Mottet, Lanusse, 
Berger, Bru, Morot, Lucet have recorded abscesses of the thorax or of 
the abdomen, due to the presence of foreign bodies which have been 
swallowed. The cow which served Mottet for a subject of observation 
swallowed two long needles; the eighteenth day, the point of one 
appeared under the skin of the middle of the right flank ; a week later, 
the other showed itself near the last left rib ; the animal seemed scarcely 
disturbed by them and the wounds healed rapidly. Rupture of the 
intestine (Clerc and Jacotin), abscesses of the omentum (Salle), or of 
the liver (Thierry), and peritonitis, also represent possible complications 
of foreign bodies passing through the digestive canal. An autopsy ofa 
horse, made by Salle, revealed an epiploic tumor; andin the center was 
a cavity filled with pus, in which floated a “string 25 centimeters 
long.” 
The vaginal mucous membrane possesses a certain amount of tolerance ; 
the mucous membranes of the wterus, bladder and urethra are more 
irritable ; metallic substances, however, introduced into the uwéerus to 
overcome nymphomany (Eloire) are perfectly supported. As to the 
ocular and respiratory mucous membranes, they always react strongly 
»* From records of the Hospital Department of the American Veterinary College, 
Drs. Huehne, and Morrison report the case of a dog in which the foreign body was 
imbedded into the pyloric opening of the stomach. It consisted of a ball of brown 
paper tightly rolled. (Americ. Veter. Review. Vol. 13—p. 175). (T) 
At the post mortem examination of a cat that had been ailing for some time without 
manifest symptoms, a piece of the cob of an ear of corn was found imbedded into 
the pyloric opening of the stomach by the translator. 
