460 
DISEASES OF THE INTESTINAL TUBE, 
recourse to very minute dissection, in order to detach this portion 
of the intestine. 
This case of stercoral fistula, which is so rarely seen in mono- 
dactyles, tends to prove the harmlessness of wounds penetrating 
through the abdomen and the intestines, in which adherences can 
be established sufficiently soon to prevent the effusion of excremen- 
titious matters into the peritoneum. 
Case III . — Perforation of the small Intestine in a Cow. 
This was produced by a blow with the horn of another cow, 
which bruised the muscles and the skin between the 8th and 9th 
ribs, near to the right hypochondrium. We observed, at the end of 
about twenty-two days, a wound, from which an abundance of 
chymous fluid flowed. She died eight days afterwards, and, on 
post-mortem examination, a wound was discovered penetrating 
into the abdomen, through the parietes of the thorax and dia- 
phragm. Folded back on itself, at fifteen centimetres from the 
pylorus, the duodenum was found closely attached to its sides by 
means of white and almost tendinous fibres. The abnormal open- 
ing was much larger than that of the adjacent points of the canal, 
and only gave passage to the food. It was rounded and irregular. 
The extremities of the part that had deviated formed an acute an- 
gle at the back, whence proceeded an internal prolongation which 
directed the aliments towards the exterior orifice. The remainder 
of the intestines only contained thick mucus, which were folded 
and crumpled. 
This unnatural anus offered no traces of inflammation. The 
same accident in a horse would, doubtless, have produced death 
much sooner ; but in the ruminant the lesion passed into a chronic 
state, and organization commenced. The cause of death was the 
absence of the formation of reparatory chyle, which could not be 
produced in an empty intestine. The process of absorption had 
completely ceased throughout the greater part of the digestive canal. 
Life could be no longer sustained, and, consequently, the animal 
died of inanition on the tenth day. It is very probable that life 
might have been prolonged by the introduction of nutritive mat- 
ter through the wound in the rectum ; but it is difficult to arrive at 
any exact diagnostic, or ascertain the commencement of a sterco- 
ral fistula. We can only suppose it to be near to the stomach from 
the nature of the matter which had exuded. This case is inte- 
resting on account of its rarity, and it will be useful in a physiolo- 
gical point of view. It shews the small degree of vitality in the 
peritoneum and intestines, a vitality which is supposed, and with 
reason, not to be much feared in wounds of the paunch, but greatly 
to increase the danger of those of the abomasum or fourth stomach. 
