284 PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
hence mostly unsuspected, when, perhaps, only one or two 
instances may occur in a practitioner’s lifetime ; and my 
father, in his long experience, remembers but one, which he 
dissected after death, in the early days of his career, when in 
Naples. 
Respecting the mode of reduction adopted. It is an old 
plan ; though, generally, a horse is cast and placed on his 
back, that the parts may be in a dependent position, favor- 
able to being set free. Mr. Hurford, in the Veterinarian for 
1852 , at p. 244 , says, “ I do not find the introduction of the 
hand into the rectum of much use, if of any.” It is to be 
presumed, that when but a small knuckle of intestine is 
caught, it is not required to lay hold of it with so much force 
as when a large portion is protruded. It must be observed, 
however, that Andre only succeeded in the reduction the 
third time of trial. 
As I am treating on inguinal hernia, there is a third case 
which occurred in the Alfort School,in 1854 , and which merits 
a mention here. I transcribe it as given in the Repertorium 
for J illy, 1 855 , after the Danish Veterinary Journal . 
Stokfleth relates the operation for strangulated inguinal 
hernia, as he saw it performed by Professors Bouley and 
Colin, on his visit to the Alfort School. The disease is much 
more frequently seen, says Stokfleth, in France than else- 
where, inasmuch as there are more horses kept entire ; in the 
month of August, the number that had been operated for 
hernia in the course of the year, in Alfort, was twelve, of 
which two died. 
A stallion was brought to the college with colic, and he 
was immediately examined, should there be a strangulated 
hernia : the scrotum on the one side in the vicinity of 
the abdominal ring is swollen and painful, and the swell- 
ing formed by intestine is separated from the testicle by 
a singular furrow. The hand in the rectum traces the 
strangulated gut up to the abdominal ring. This having 
been ascertained, the horse is cast, and narcotized ; three 
of the limbs are brought together and fixed, the fourth, next 
the hernia, is fixed to some firm object at a distance ; the 
hoof is cleansed thoroughly, that in the horse struggling, par- 
ticles of dust may not be kicked over the intestine when 
exposed. The skin of the scrotum is cut through, and 
dissected round the tunica vaginalis, taking care that it 
should be widely separate at the upper part, that the clams 
may be applied sufficiently high up. A small incision is 
then made in the tunica vaginalis to admit of the passage of 
the herniotomy knife. This instrument is carried towards 
