PROGRESS OP VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 697 
the mesenteric veins, though the operation was performed 
fapidly and neatly, the horse standing, at every inspiration 
air would very forcibly rush into the peritoneum, unless the 
wound was most strictly guarded by the hands of an 
assistant ; this was no easy matter, and was sufficient to in- 
duce an invariably fatal peritonitis, notwithstanding recourse 
being had to the most energetic antiphlogistic treatment. It 
is of immense value, however, to know that in ordinary 
punctured wounds of the abdomen, in the horse at least, the 
traumatic peritonitis is very limited and of a plastic cha- 
racter, simply sufficient to favour the cicatrization of the 
wounds. It results from my experiments, that exclusion of 
air from the peritoneum is strictly to be regarded, for when 
admitted, especially if cold, the consequences may be serious. 
What occurs in penetrating wounds of the abdomen with 
visceral lesions, but not protrusion? Are the contents of 
the punctured bowel poured into the abdomen ? According 
to Petit* the “ effusion is resisted during life by the mutual 
contraction of the muscles and intestines, and that, con- 
sequently, when this resistance has ceased, or after death, 
effusion readily takes place.” Two experiments on the 
horse, by Mr. Travers, prove that feculent effusion does not 
occur. In one instance, the small intestines, caecum, and 
mesentery, were wounded in several places. In a second, 
the perforations were — one through the ilium, two through 
its mesentery, three in the colon and rectum, and several 
through the mesocolon, still not a particle of feculent matter 
was effused, though the animal survived sixteen hours. 
Effusion of fecal matter has, however, been witnessed in 
man when the bowels have been ruptured and the abdominal 
walls unabraded ; it usually follows ulceration of gut. There 
need not then be great apprehension of intestinal effusion in 
penetrating abdominal wounds. 
“ If, in a wound of the stomach,” says John Bell,f “ the 
food could get easily out by that wound, the stomach would 
unload itself that way — there could be no vomiting, the 
patient must die; but so regular and continual is this 
pressure, that the instant a man is wounded in the stomach 
he vomits, he continues vomiting for many days, while not 
one particle escapes into the cavity of the abdomen. The 
outward wound is commonly opposite to that of the stomach, 
and by that passage some part of the food comes out; but 
* * Suite de l’Essai sur les Epanchemens/ par feu M. Petit le fils ; tom. ii. 
See Travers, loc. cit., page 14. 
f ‘Discourses on the Nature and Cure of Wounds/ by John Bell; 
Edinburgh, 1812. 
