ABDOMINAL INJURIES. 187 
the vital powers exert themselves with the greater energy. The stomach 
is thus burst by its own inherent force; the largest division of its vari- 
ous structures always being exhibited by the elastic peritoneal covering 
—the lesser rent being left upon the inelastic mucous lining membrane. 
Excessive colic, followed by tympanitis, are the only general symptoms 
which attend ruptured stomach. The history of the case, if it can he 
obtained, is, however, a better guide; but there are too often interested 
motives for distorting the facts. Vomition through the nostrils has 
been thought to particularize ruptured stomach; but experience has 
ascertained that vomition may be induced by any lesion which is suf- 
ficiently great to cause revulsion of the system. 
Intro-susception is always preceded by colic. The last-named affec- 
tion causes portions of the bowels to contract. Such 
contracted intestines become small, firm, and stiff. 
They are, while in that condition, by the peristaltic 
action readily pushed up other portions of the canal, 
which are of the natural size. The entrance of the 
contracted bowel acts upon the healthy tube as if it 
were a foreign substance. Contractibility is ex- 
cited. The displaced and intruding bowel is grasped 8 NTsTINE_Divipep so 
A THE 
as by a vice, and the accident is of that kind which pl i aaah 
provokes its own continuance. Cure is hopeless, 
while consciousness remains; the only hope is the administration of 
chloroform in full and long-continued doses; thereby to arrest vitality 
and chance the release of the imprisoned gut. While intro-susception 
lasts, all passage is effectually stopped. Inflammation soon commences, 
and the symptoms of outrageous colic are exhibited. However, such 
is not always the case. Mr. Woodger, 
veterinary surgeon of Bishop’s Mews, 
Paddington, attended a case of this de- 
scription, in which the symptoms present 
seemed to denote congestion of the lungs. 
Invagination is here used to express 
the entrance of one entire division of the 
bowels within another. In this sense it 
is chiefly witnessed upon the large intes- Te cecum tyvacrnaten wrrmty THE coLoN, 
AND BLACK FROM INTENSE INFLAMMATION. 
tines; whereas intro-susception is mostly 
present upon the smaller bowels. The mesentery must be ruptured 
before such an accident can take place; but then the agony attendant 
upon the previous derangement is so powerful that it is impossible for 
the hugeness of this lesion to increase the violence of the torture; nor 
is there any sign by which so sad a catastrophe can be predicated. 
