CASES BY RICHARD HENRY DYER. 
509 
Case II. — Ruptured Diaphragm . 
The subject, was an old mare, belonging to a man who is in the 
habit of bringing heavy goods to our market. The history is as 
follows : — she was taken from a meadow early in the morning of 
the 2d of September last, where there was plenty of good grass, 
and where she had been feeding all night, and put into a cart per- 
fectly well with a heavy load behind her. The owner left home 
at eight o’clock ; and when going up a steep hill, about three miles 
from this place, the mare suddenly staggered, and appeared unable 
to stand; she was, however, obliged to go on, as the man could get 
no other horse, neither did he think there was any danger. He 
thought that it was a fit of gripes, and that the whole of it would 
work off before he reached Winchester. She continued stagger- 
ing along until she arrived here, when she was taken to the stable 
and put up: this was about twelve o’clock. The symptoms appeared 
to get worse until three, when 1 was sent for in a hurry ; and I 
found, upon entering the stable, the following symptoms: — 
Mare standing with difficulty — pulse 80, and weak — ears and 
extremities warm — respiration not disturbed. She was considered 
overdone; I myself was of that opinion, but the pulse indicated 
that something extraordinary had taken place. I gave ammon. s. 
carb. 3ij, and in half an hour bled to six quarts. She now lay 
down, and continued to roll about as if she had some abdominal 
pain. I employed the catheter, and found the bladder all right. I 
emptied, also, the rectum, and gave enemas of pulv. opii et aq. tep., 
but all to no purpose. I remarked a peculiar working of the dia- 
phragm where it digitates with the transversalis abdominis mus- 
cle, and which gave me some idea that that viscus was injured. 
The symptoms remaining the same, I despaired of saving her, 
as I was convinced some lesion had taken place. 
Two hours afterwards I again saw the mare ; she then seemed to 
suffer no pain ; indeed, she appeared comatose, the pulse in a few 
minutes rising to 130. I now told the owner that it was all over : 
she died at seven o’clock the same afternoon, with very slight strug- 
gling. 
Post-mortem appearances. — The coecum and colon were distended 
with ingesta; but the other parts were healthy and free from inflam- 
mation. The stomach was very much distended with undigested 
grass, but no inflammation here. The stomach was partly in the cavity 
of the thorax, as I found the diaphragm torn from the ensiform car- 
tilage to the foramen dextrum — -the edges tumefied and red — lungs 
collapsed and healthy ; in short, every other viscus was in a nor- 
mal state. The owner of the mare said she never fed well, even 
when her food was of the choicest kind, which led me to inspect 
