CASE OF RUPTURE IN THE ILEUM IN A DOG. 629 
eight hours afterwards it remained pretty much in the same state, 
evidently very sick, without, however, any additional vomiting. 
Now, a very marked change took place. The poor animal was 
seized with violent vomiting of blood, which continued more or 
less for the space of six or eight hours, and, in the intervals of 
vomiting, large quantities of dark grumous fluid issued from the 
mouth and rectum. Urgent symptoms of collapse now appeared, 
and the dog died, labouring under all the symptoms of perforation 
or laceration of some portion or other of the alimentary canal. 
Before dissection, after death, it was ascertained that no external 
mark of ecchymosis was visible upon any part of the abdomen. 
Upon laying open the abdominal cavity, a large quantity of grum- 
ous fluid (similar to that which had issued from the mouth and 
rectum during life), was found, — probably from four to six ounces. 
The intestines throughout presented the appearance of acute in- 
flammatory action having been going on, having on their serous 
covering globules of castor oil, which had in vain been administered 
to the animal in hope of relief. The ileum at its lower third was 
found to have sustained a laceration, so extensive as to permit an 
entrance to the point of the fore finger. Upon reflecting the ab- 
dominal flap, and examining its tissues, no infiltration of blood 
was visible. All the other organs of the dog were healthy. 
The above is a very interesting case, as illustrative of the great 
amount of injury caused by direct external violence which the 
internal viscera of the abdomen may sustain without any apparent 
external lesion existing. I have elsewhere published a some- 
what similar case, as occuring in the human subject, where the 
patient, a young man, received a kick on the abdomen from a 
horse, and died labouring under somewhat similar symptoms as 
the dog, with no external mark of injury on the abdomen, and yet 
dissection revealed to us, that the ileum was in this instance not 
only lacerated, but actually torn across throughout its entire caliber. 
This fact, in a medico-legal point of view, is well worth remem- 
bering, and derives considerable value and increased confirmation 
from the case of the dog now narrated. 
Thomas Williamson, M.D. 
Leith , 17 th Sept. 1844. Physician to the Leith Dispensary, &e. 
4 O 
VOL. XVII. 
