696 
STRANGULATION OF THE INTESTINES OF 
AN OX. — “ GUT- TIE.” 
By Vincent Vine, Student. 
In the spring of the present year, I was requested to 
attend a large Sussex ox, nine years old, the property of 
John Shoosmith, Esq., of Berwick Church Farm. The 
messenger informed me that he was suffering from colic, 
or stoppage of the intestines, and had been in pain, since 
5 o’clock in the morning. On my arrival, about 10 o’clock, 
a m., I found the animal labouring under much abdominal 
pain. He was striking at the belly with his hind-legs, 
stepping backwards in a peculiar manner, by placing one 
hind-leg directly behind the other, bowing his back, and 
occasionally lying down for five or ten minutes at a time. The 
pulse was small and accelerated, breathing rather quicker than 
natural ; all desire for food had ceased, and rumination was 
suspended. On an examination of the animal per rectum , I 
found that a small quantity of blood and mucus, unmixed 
with faeces, existed in the intestine. I could also distinctly 
feel a cord or membrane apparently attached superiorly to 
some part of the Psoas muscles, but I could not satisfy 
myself as to its inferior attachment. On gently pulling at 
the cord, the animal evinced a greater degree of pain. I 
informed the owner that the animal was “ knit ” (the term 
which is used in this county by the uneducated practitioner), 
this being the same disease which Mr. Youatt calls “ cords,” 
or “ gut-tie.” As my prognosis was not unfavorable on the 
whole, I recommended that an operation should be had re- 
course to. In the mean time, I gave — 
Mag. Sulph., tbj , 
Pulv. Zingiberis, 5ij > 
Aquae, Oj. M. 
3 p.m., as no improvement had as yet taken place, the 
owner gave his consent to the operation being performed 
without loss of time. I therefore proceeded to cast the 
ox on his left side, and secured three of his legs together. 
A rope was then placed on the right hind-leg, and the limb 
pulled in a backward direction, to render tense the muscles. 
I next cut through the common integument, the external and 
internal oblique muscles, the transversalis abdominis, and 
the peritoneum, between the spinous process of the ileum and 
the last rib, about opposite to the transverse process of the 
