27 
CASE OF RUPTURE OF THE ABDOMEN IN A MARE. 
By Mr. Philip Fry, M.R.C.V.S., Torrington. 
I send you the following case of rupture of the single colon, 
should you think proper to insert it in your Periodical. 
On the 24th of April 1839, I was called on to see a mare be- 
longing to an Excise officer. On my arrival, I found the mare 
dull, and occasionally looking round at her flanks. On inquiry, 
they told me she had lain down two or three times. The pulse 
was 52 or 53. I gave her a carminative draught and bled her. 
I saw her again three hours afterwards. She frequently en- 
deavoured to void her faeces, but could not. I was then convinced 
that there was some obstruction. I introduced my hand up the 
rectum, and found it completely empty. I then gave an oleaginous 
draught, and threw up an injection. 
II P.M. — The symptoms are more violent ; she is continually 
lying down and rolling on her back, and straining violently. I re- 
peated the injection, and ordered it to be administered every two 
hours, until a remission of symptoms. 
2 5lh, 6 A.M. — Still worse. Not the least portion of faeces had 
passed off with the injection. Pulse 67. I repeated the oleagin- 
ous draught and injections. Fomentations were applied to the 
abdomen, and bleeding repeated. — Nine A.M., looking round at 
her flank with that haggard look so characteristic in enteritis. 
Fomentations and injections continued. 
At 4 P.M., all hope of recovery had fled, and the symptoms 
were so violent that it was almost dangerous to approach her. 
Six P.M. — In a profuse perspiration and up and down every two or 
three minutes. While we stood looking on she fell with her head 
against a rough stone wall with such force that she never rose 
again. 
On opening the abdomen I found three gallons of fluid in it. 
The rectum, and part of the colon, were empty ; but, all at once, 
however, it became stuffed like a bag of hops, with hardened 
fseces. 
On examination I found a rupture about three quarters of an 
inch in length, where fluid had escaped and a patch of inflammation 
about four inches wide, directly posterior to the hardened faeces, 
which formed an almost complete stricture. 
I have no doubt, from the violent endeavours to void the faeces, 
that the inflammation was the cause of the rupture. 
