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LACERATION OF THE RECTUM FROM COITION. 
LACERATION OF THE RECTUM FROM COITION. 
By H. Arkcoll, M.R.C.V.S., Leek. 
Dear Sir. — I send you the following curious case for 
the e Veterinarian 
On Wednesday, the 5th of July, 1 was sent for to the 
Black’s Head, in this town, to see a mare belonging to Mr. 
Warrington, of Endon, which the messenger said he had 
taken to the horse, and where she had been over-covered. 
On arriving, I found the mare in a pitiable state, the per- 
spiration pouring off her, the respiration much quickened, the 
abdomen enlarged, pulse 85, lying down, but not rolling, with 
a hopeless look about the eyes, which we often see when near 
the end of desperate cases. I immediately bled the mare to 
the extent of eight quarts, and gave her an anodyne, Ol. 
Lini, Tinct. Opii, &c. ; while administering the medicine, the 
mare urinated : her urine was clear, and voided without much 
straining. I told the owner, there was something very 
curious, as w ell as dangerous, about the mare, when the lad 
w ho took her to the horse told me he had been in the anus, 
and that while the horse w as in her, she nearly dropped to 
the ground. On hearing this, I immediately made an ex- 
amination,^- rectum , which w 7 as full of dung; on withdraw- 
ing the first handful of w r hich, I found it covered with blood, 
and while clearing the rectum found a laceration about 10 
inches from the outer opening. 
Being rather a curious case, and the Scots Grays being in 
the Tow n ^ en route 9 to the East, I obtained the assistance of 
their veterinary surgeon, who came and examined the mare 
with me : he examined her per vaginam , as w r ell as per rectum ; 
the first w r as found all right ; the other lacerated, as I before 
found it. Or course, the case w 7 as hopeless, the mare dying 
in about twelve hours afterwards. 
I made a post-mortem next day ; I found every part healthy, 
with the exception of the rectum, in which there was a rent, 
about 10 inches in circumference, around vilich there was a 
good deal of inflammation. The owner applied to the master 
of the horse for remuneration ; he objected to give anything, 
and I thought w T e should have had a case for the County- 
Court Judge ; though after being served with summons, &c. 
he came to an arrangement, and paid about three-quarters of 
the value of the mare, with expenses. 
Since the above case, I have heard of a similar one hap- 
