HERNIA. 443 



able. It is always serious. Some kiU immediately, while with 

 others there may be a respite of several hours or days, and with 

 those which are chronic, there may be no apparent impairment of 

 life or health. But whatever may be the character or the aspect 

 of a given case, and however the prognosis may vary, it must 

 never be forgotten that diaphragmatic hernia has this invariable 

 character, that its effect is always to interfere with the respiration ; 

 that the horse is at the best permanently affected with heaves, is 

 unable to perform any active or laborious service where strong 

 lungs are needed, and is always more or less liable to engorgement 

 and strangulation. Diaphragmatic hernias are incurable, their sit- 

 uation, in the deepest interior of the anatomy, rendering it impos- 

 sible to apply any means of direct therapeutic treatment. They 

 cannot be reduced, and even if that were practicable, they could 

 not be secured and retained in situ. Attempts have been recom- 

 mended by Bouley to reduce them by making an incision through 

 the flank and replacing the protruding organ in its proper posi- 

 tion by the taxis with the hand in the abdominal cavity. Whether 

 in our days of perfect antiseptics such an operation could be suc- 

 cessfully performed on the horse is a question not yet solved. The 

 experiment might be attempted with better chances of success in 

 cattle. In any case the operation will be justifiable only as a 

 last resource, and when the life of the suffering animal is abso- 

 lutely in jeopardy, in fact, as a final alternative, a dernier resort. 



Ventral Hernia. 



This term includes all hernial tumors produced by the pro- 

 trusion of one or several of the abdominal organs through an ac- 

 cidental opening in the muscular and fibrous waUs of the abdomen, 

 under the skin, -which remains intact. The opening through which 

 this kind of rupture takes place is always accidental, unlike those 

 which pass through the natural channels, as the umbilical or in- 

 guinal, but still, in common with them, has a peritoneal Uniag. 



Ventral hernias are of quite common occurrence, principally 

 however, in large animals, while in small quadrupeds they occur 

 less frequently, and they may take place in any part of the abdo- 

 men. They are known by distinctive names, corresponding with 

 those of the protruding organ, as gastrocele, hepatocele, enterocele 

 and epiploocele, etc. 



They usually originate as direct causes in blows or contusion 



