HERNIA. 447 



extravasations must not prevent the immediate application of the 

 bandage. 



In cases of chronic hernia, compression is no longer suiScient. 

 Jannet recommends the use of clamps as in umbilical hernia, and 

 reports having relieved a case vs^here the tumor was as large as a 

 child's head. Leblanc advises the quilled suture, and Schwane- 

 feld cured by this mode a hernia twice as large as the head of a 

 man. Hertwig speaks favorably of the application of Delavigne's 

 method in exomphalus. Going, Lafosse and Hertwig have ob- 

 tained success with nitric acid injections, and Krantz and Schutt 

 with blisters. Peyon, Dandrieu, Terrien and Obich have had 

 good results with the direct suture of the ventral walls in bovines, 

 and even solipeds. Bouley objects to the suture of the edges of 

 the opening, and also to injections into the evacuated sac of irri- 

 tating substances, to excite inflammation and produce the adhe- 

 sion of its walls. We have ourselves experimented several times 

 with the subcutaneous injections, but every attempt has resulted 

 in failure. According to Peuch & Toussaint, if old ventral her- 

 nias are to be treated, the best plan is to have recourse to bandag- 

 ing, as employed in the treatment of exomphalus. 



EVENTEATIONS. 



An eventration may be defined as a compound hernia, and it 

 constitutes an accident of the first degree of severity, consistiag 

 in the formation of a hernia, of indefinite dimensions, taking place 

 through an opening involving the entire thickness of the abdomi- 

 nal walls, the sMn included, in such a manner that some portion 

 of the abdominal viscera, but most commonly the intestines or the 

 omentum, become directly exposed. Ordinarily they are due to 

 some traumatic lesion, such as a thrust from or a fall upon a sharp 

 body, or they may be produced by stab wounds, or punctures with 

 a fork or a knife ; or again, by kicks inflicted by other animals, or 

 horn-blows, when cattle are crowded into too contracted a space 

 and struggle for more room, or quarrel when herded in pastures. 

 And they quite commonly end the career of the wretched victims 

 of barbarity which are compelled to assist ia the bloody and cruel 

 sport of the Spanish bull fight. They are also observed at times 

 following severe surgical manipulations, as in castration, during 

 the operation for strangulated inguinal hernia, after the efforts of 



