162 DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS 



tain colics was observed and affirmed before Bollinger's day.^ But 

 we cannot deny to the Munich professor the credit of having estab- 

 lished the frequency of intestinal thrombi and having increased 

 our knowledge concerning those affections.^ 



Pathological anatomy of verminous aneurism of the 

 GREAT MESENTERIC ARTERY. The researches of Hering (1830) 

 demonstrate the frequency of this aneurism in the horse ; horses 

 which are not affected, says this author, are rarer than those having 

 several such aneurisms. The statistics of Bruckmiiller, Koll, Bol- 

 linger, etc., establish that 90 to 94 per cent, of the subjects of the 

 equine species are affected by this disease, which increases in fre- 

 quency as the animals increase in age. In post-mortem examina- 

 tions made upon 85 anatomical subjects, EUenberger found 84 with 

 verminous aneurism. 



Aneurism may be found at the age of six months ; but in the 

 newly-born and during the first months of life it does not exist. 



Aneurisms are more common upon the anterior mesenteric arteries 

 than upon the posterior ; it is exceptional to detect any upon the 

 posterior aorta. 



They form dilatations which are ordinarily regular, oval, fusi- 

 form or pyriform, at times irregular, and may attain the size of a 

 man's head and a length of thirty centimetres or more. The walls 

 of the vessel are thickened, especially the medium layer and the 

 peritoneal coating ; the internal layer presents the greatest variety 

 of inflammatory and degenerative alterations ; tumefaction, fatty de- 

 generation, sclerosis, calcification, ossification, loss of substance, etc. 

 The contents are represented by a stratified thrombus, abundantly 

 supplied with vessels and adhering to the wall ; it may completely 

 obstruct the lumen of the aneurism and advance more or less into 

 the arterial divisions, even into the aorta ; at times it is very soft, 



1 Bollinger : Die Kolik der Pferde und das Wurmaneurysma der Eingeweiderar- 

 terien, 1870. 



2 The veterinarians and French authors who have written on colics during this 

 century have described, under the name of red colics, cutting colics, intestinal apo- 

 plexy, enter orrhagia, and subacute enteritis, various colics which set in suddenly 

 without prodromes^ are charatcerized by violent intestinal pains, and present at 

 autopsy intense hyperemia of a more or less extended intestinal tract. Very free 

 bleedings, revulsive frictions, sedative drenches (opium, camphor, asafoetida), and 

 walking exercise are the measures, generally preferred for combating such conditions. 

 These colics have had many and very dissimilar causes assigned to them. Their 

 pathology is yet very imperfectly understood ; but, in many cases, they are certainly 

 provoked by embolic or thrombotic occlusions of the vessels. — n. d. t. 



