636 
PARIETAL RUPTURE OF THE ABDOMEN. 
following lesions appeared : — There was a complete rupture of 
the abdominal tunic at its insertion into the border of the pubis. 
There was also rupture of the aponeurotic fibres of the costo- 
abdominal muscle — the obliquus externus abdominis — and the 
fleshy portion of the ileo-abdominal — the obliquus internus ab- 
dominis — to the extent of three or four inches from the sterno- 
pubian — the rectus abdominis, to three inches from its insertion 
into the abdominal border of the pubis. This last muscle in the 
part which continued attached to it was separated into two equal 
portions, and permitted us to see the tendon formed by the re- 
united aponeurotic fibres, that constituted the linea alba, and 
which were also ruptured. 
The womb offered nothing unusual, but the abdomen enclosed 
twenty-four pounds of a bloody serosity, with some clots of blood 
in it. The borders of the parts that were torn had some ten- 
dency to be cicatrized. 
As the accident was not perceived until the morning on which 
my attendance was required, it is probable that it had no 
existence until the preceding night, and was owing to the 
animal being permitted, notwithstanding her advanced state of 
pregnancy, to go into the fields or pasturages, separated from 
each other by numerous wide and deep ditches. It is very pro- 
bable, or in a manner certain, that, in the leaping of some of 
these, the animal slipped or fell, and the injury was effected. 
That which authorises me in this supposition is, that she was 
naturally of a wild and savage disposition. 
In a physiological point of view this case is not without in- 
terest. It demonstrates in an unanswerable manner that the 
contractions of the abdomen are not indispensable for the accom- 
plishment of parturition ; that it may take place without the 
succour of art, by the simple contraction of the uterus ; and that 
they may be induced or increased by the influence of certain 
medicaments, termed emmenagogues. 
La Clinique Veterinaires. 
THE VETERINARIAN, NOVEMBER 1, 1843. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
We endeavoured, in the number of our Journal for last month, 
to shew, on evidence too plain to admit either of doubt or contra- 
diction, that the veterinary art had, chiefly through the aid of 
