]94 ACUTE INDIGESTION PRODUCING DEATH. 
that opinion, having seen several similar cases, and the animals 
have always shown precisely the same symptoms that this 
patient did at the time of the injury occurring. Moreover, the 
blood that was effused in the rectum was of a bright scarlet 
colour, which evidently showed the lesion to be of a very 
recent occurrence. Had it happened the day previous, the 
horse could not have been ridden home ten miles, and the blood 
also would have been found coagulated. It perhaps may not 
appear quite scientific to have abstracted blood on account of 
a lesion of this character ; having seen, however, two instances 
of similar ruptures of the rectum, but which occurred at the 
inferior part, and which terminated in gangrene and mortifica- 
tion of the entire extent of the coats of the intestines up as 
far as the stomach, and which animals lived for a month, I 
resolved, if possible, as the only chance of saving my patient, 
to bleed, and adopt those measures which were likely to pre- 
vent the inflammation extending. 
As to the cause of the rupture, I am inclined to believe 
that it w r as produced by a sudden spasmodic contraction of 
the muscular coat of the rectum to evacuate some hardened 
faeces, which resisted this action, and thus caused the 
lesion. These cases are generally considered fatal, and I 
never knew one to recover before ; but invariably, in these 
small ruptures, the symptoms are so obscure, that at times 
the lesion is not discovered, and inflammation and death 
follow. 
I have seen several cases of small circular ruptures of the 
jejunum and ileum, which have been caused from constipa- 
tion ; and in which the ruptures have been so slight that the 
animals have lived for several days after. In cases of a lace- 
ration of the coats of the intestines, death generally takes 
place in forty-eight hours after . 
ACUTE INDIGESTION, CAUSED BY THE SWAL- 
LOWING OF EXTRANEOUS SUBSTANCES, PRO- 
DUCING PARALYSIS AND DEATH. 
By the Same. 
This patient was the property of a respectable builder in 
this town, who purchased the horse on the 5th of February, 
and having worked him all the day, put him at night into a 
stable which he had just completed building, and which had 
