MESENTERIC HERNIA. 
193 
had also been observed to pass down the nostrils. I arrived 
about 6 p. m. and found the mare in very great agony. 
Profuse perspirations bedewed the body, but the escape of 
blood from the nostrils had now ceased. I was informed 
that she had purged yesterday without any apparent cause* 
but had not been observed to void any faeces for the last six 
hours. The abdomen was swollen* the respiration very much 
increased, and the pulse quick and wavering. I gave an 
aperient in combination with an opiate, and threw up a clyster, 
which was, however, immediately ejected. Seeing this, I 
introduced my arm up the rectum, and found, at a short 
distance beyond the pelvic portion of the intestine, that I 
could not pass even a single finger farther onwards. 
1 now gave trial to opium with ether, and employed 
an infusion of tobacco as an enema, but without any benefit. 
Taking some tobacco in my hand I again introduced the arm 
into the rectum, and was enabled to pass a small portion of 
this sedative agent a short distance within the strictured part 
of the bowel, in doing which I remarked that no gaseous 
matters escaped, a fact which led me to believe that a more 
than ordinary stricture was present. With a view of support- 
ing the sinking powers of life, and to neutralize the gaseous 
compounds, the preparations of ammonia, with diffusible 
stimulants were next administered, but with no avail, the 
patient sinking almost without a struggle in twelve hours 
from the attack. 
Post-mortem examination . — -About two gallons of a dirty 
green -coloured fluid, mingled with a little cut hay, was 
found in the abdominal cavity, and which, by further re- 
search, I ascertained had come from a small rupture of the 
ileum, at about three inches from its termination in the caecum 
cajput coli . The diaphragm was likewise ruptured, and the 
right lung greatly congested. A small quantity of blood was 
present in the bronchial tubes and trachea, which accounted 
for the nasal hemorrhage. On examining the rupture of the 
ileum, i discovered about twenty leech-like parasites of a 
small size, and white in colour. They were sticking with 
great tenacity to the mucous coat of the intestine near to its 
torn edges. I examined the inside of the bowels in many other 
parts, but could not find any more of these parasites. The 
lesion, however, which was the chief cause of the mare’s death, 
was found at the terminal portion of the intestinal tube. 
Here a rent in the mesentery existed, into which a fold of the 
floating portion of the rectum had insinuated itself. This part, 
with some of the parasites, I send for your inspection. I ought 
to have previously remarked that the mare had often been the 
xxviii. 25 
