PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 397 
made a post mortem examination, when I found the abdominal 
viscera perfectly healthy in appearance, but both the stomach 
and intestines were literally crammed with food. The lungs 
were a little diseased. The vessels of the brain were very 
much congested, and on the top of the cerebrum there was 
a complete cavity, which contained a membranous sac re- 
sembling an hydatid. I have preserved it, and shall be very 
happy to show it to any member of the profession. 
Case 2. — On the 25th of March, 1855, I was requested 
to go to Walthamstow, to see a mare belonging to a 
Mr. Carter, that had been turned out to foal. The man 
said the mare was down and straining violently, and that 
the foal was coming the wrong way. When I arrived, I 
found the statement to be perfectly true : the mare was 
down, groaning and straining violently, and the head, neck, 
and one fore leg of the foal had passed through the rectum, 
and the other fore leg through the vaginal opening. The 
first thing I did was to get the mare on her legs, which 
having done, and placed the hobbles on her, I commenced 
operating by taking away the parts that were protruding 
through the anus, close off with the rectum. Then dilating the 
sphincter ani, and pushing the parts back that protruded 
through the opening in the intestine, I with a little as- 
sistance extracted the remaining part of the foal through 
the vagina. I gave the mare a draught containing Tr. 
Opii, Jj ; Ol. Lini, lb. j ; gruel one quart, which I repeated 
at night, ordering her to have nothing but warm bran mashes 
as her diet. Without entering into further details, the 
animal was under my care for about a fortnight, when she 
was sold to a builder for £18, and is at present working in a 
brick- cart, perfectly well. 
[We have met with several analogous cases to the above, 
in which the rectum became lacerated in the act of parturi- 
tion, either from a false presentation of the foetus, or from the 
violence of the throes when the presentation was natural. In 
each case, if the mare survived the injury, imperfect closure 
of the rent of the intestine followed, and the animal through- 
out life has passed more or less of the feculent matter through 
the vaginal opening. She has thus not only constantly suf- 
fered from irritation of the vulvae, and abrasions of the 
surrounding integument, but presented a very disgusting 
appearance to the eye of the observer.] 
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