370 
ON PERFORATION OF THE BLADDER IN THE 
HORSE. 
By Mr. W. Mogford, V.S., Guernsey. 
In the last No. of The Veterinarian, I observed a case 
of perforation of the bladder, extracted from the Recueil de Me- 
dtcin Veterinaire, which forcibly arrested my attention ; and as 
the narrator, M. Gaspard Barthelemy, observes that the subject 
is new to him, and that the symptoms are scarcely recognizable 
during life, I will, with your permission, state a case of this 
description, in a human subject, which came under my own ob- 
servation. 
Several years ago I was acquainted with an invalid in this island, 
the nature of whose malady for some time perplexed his medi- 
cal attendants. The urine had a milky hue, and a strong fsecal 
smell. I also observed that in each effort of emission the urine 
was preceded by two or three slight puffs of wind. 
After a lingering illness the patient died, when a post-mortem 
examination shewed a considerable ulceration of the rectum, 
from which there was a communication with the bladder, but so 
obscure, that it was several days before it was discovered, even 
with the assistance of a blow-pipe. 
Two or three years after this, 1 was sent for to see a horse (the 
property of our late Lieutenant Governor, Sir James Douglas) 
which had received a wound in the hough from a stable-fork. A 
violent inflammation ensued, which also affected the neck of the 
bladder ; and as he was unable to move or to lie down, he was 
supported in a sling, a part of which, a few days afterwards, un- 
fortunately gave way, and left the horse suspended by a narrow 
strip underneath the flank. Soon after this occurrence, I ob- 
served that, in the effort to stale, a few puffs of air preceded the 
urine, as in the instance beforementioned : and my previous 
experience having enabled me to give a prognosis of the issue, 
I advised the immediate destruction of the animal, which was 
accomplished, and a post-mortem examination proved the correct- 
ness of my suspicions. 
Among my memoranda I have also noticed some observations 
which I had recorded at the time, in relation to a case of 
castration detailed by M. Olivier, in The Veterinarian for 
October 1840. The animal (a mule) died from hemorrhage, 
that could not be stopped. This is unfortunately a too frequent 
result, which, however, I feel persuaded, might often, if not 
always, be avoided by adapting the means l have described in 
The Veterinarian for June 1839. 
