526 PROGRESS OP VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
that it is not dangerous to puncture the intestine. It is a 
very simple operation, and whenever it has been followed by 
fatal results, Rey says that death was to be attributed to the 
condition of the intestine. 
Isnard relates a case that is in support of Rey’s views. 
There is no doubt that the operation is an excessively simple 
one, and our readers will remember that in the number of the 
Veterinarian for December, 1855, we adduced facts, and 
brought to bear the weight of authoritative opinion to prove 
that simple penetrating wounds of the abdomen, without 
protrusion of the intestine, or penetration of air into the 
cavity, were almost unattended with danger. The simplest 
form of punctured abdominal wound in the horse, is that pro- 
duced by a sharp trocar, that is made to enter the large 
intestine where it is most easy of access, that is, in the right 
flank, or towards the linea alba. 
It is a question whether the exhibition of alkalies, or an 
aloetic purge, will not at all times supersede the use of the 
trocar. In bad cases of wind colic there may be great and 
immediate danger, and I should not hesitate to make an outlet 
for the escape of gas. 
The operation was first adopted in France by Chabert,* 
then by Barrier, f Herouard,J Garcin,§ and others. In Ger- 
many, Hayne,|| Eckel, Bleiweis, Rychner, Pinel and Gyger 
have spoken of it in the most recommendatory manner, from 
the results witnessed after its performance. Brogniez^[ ap- 
plied his ingenuity to the devising anenterotome,and suggested 
the direct introduction of medicinal agents into the intestine. 
The terms enterotomy and enterotome have been used to desig- 
nate respectively the operation and the instrument that 
Brogniez invented. We prefer enterocentesis (Strauss) to ente- 
rotomy , as the latter expression is applied, in human surgery, 
to Dupuytren’s method of inducing sloughing of the spur- 
like process of an artificial anus, so as to remove the impedi- 
ment to the radical cure of the latter. Dieterichs calls the 
operation punctio coli , as it is invariably the colon that is 
opened in the horse. 
As it is the right flank that is punctured, the horse had 
best be standing, and the trocar to be employed should be 
four or five inches long, but the canula should not exceed 
* ‘ Cours pratique des Maladies des Animaux,’ 13eme question do 
l’Hydropisie. 
f ‘ Instructions et Observat. Veter.,’ tom. v, p. 308, Paris, 1813. 
X Ibid, p. 323. 
§ ‘Recueil de Med. Vet,’ 1837, p. 72. 
!| ‘Practisches Heilverfahren, &c,’ Wien, 1840, p. 2G0. 
‘Journal Veteriuaire et Agricole Belgique,’ 1843. 
