CASE OF INTESTINAL CALCULUS. 
H>1 
Meckel, quoting from Klein, speaks of an infant, born in the 
eighth month of utero-gestation, in which the abdominal inte- 
guments were wanting ; there was a displacement of all the diges- 
tive viscera, and the heart was in the abdominal cavity*. 
Geoffroy Saint Hilaire alludes, in very brief terms, to the de- 
ficiency, or absence of this anterior or inferior wall of the abdo- 
men. He says that it is, in most cases, accompanied by exora- 
phalis (umbilical hernia), or eventration (more or less complete 
escape of the intestines from the abdomen) ; but that it may 
exist, as in the case quoted from the Lancet , without either of 
these consequences^. It is to be lamented that he has not en- 
tered more fully into a subject so interesting. 
Y. 
CASE OF INTESTINAL CALCULUS, HAVING A LARGE 
BRASS BUTTON FOR ITS NUCLEUS. 
By Mr. W. F. Karkeek, F.S., Truro . 
A draught horse, the property of a farmer in the neighbour- 
hood of Penryn, some years since was observed to be ill, refusing 
his food, and losing his condition ; in which state he continued 
for about five or six months, when he gradually began to recover, 
and, having gained his former strength, was again worked, and 
continued to be so without a single day’s illness, when he was 
suddenly attacked with violent colicky pains, and died in a few 
hours. 
Supposing that there was some connexion between the first 
illness and the last, a post-mortem examination was made, and 
in the point of the caecum a calculus was discovered which 
weighed about eleven or twelve ounces. On dividing the cal- 
culus in two, in order to observe its composition, a large brass 
button was found in its centre. 
This is the history of the case as related by the farrier who 
attended the animal. He shewed me one-half of the stone ; it 
had the appearance of a pebble, but its specific gravity was con- 
siderably lighter, its substance being, very light and porous, and 
composed chiefly of earths and animal matter. 
From the horizontal situation of the horse, a stone does not 
gravitate so much in him as in the human being, and therefore 
* Archiv. fur Physick. de Meckel, tom. iii, p. 391. 
f Histoire des Anomalies, tom. i, p. 632. 
VOL. IX. y 
