DURING THE SCHOLASTIC SESSION OF 1836 - 7 . 123 
refringerant, astringent, or tonic-local measure, and we have again 
and again vainly attempted to reduce it, and to retain it in its 
natural situation by means of the pessary or the bandage, then one 
of the three following cases may present itself- — either there is a 
simple invagination, and to no very great extent, of the inferior 
part of the rectum — or the invagination is double or treble — and, 
finally, when either the first or the second of these states exist, 
there are other invaginations in the course of the intestine. 
In the second case, the intestine is hard, distended, and the 
hernial mass is voluminous — -in the third, the patient refuses his 
food, vomits, is jgriped, or from time to time there is considerable 
tympanitis. 
In the second case, also, the division of the hernial protrusion of 
the rectum, however small it may be, may produce a solution of 
continuity in that part which belongs to the abdominal cavity 
anterior to the pelvis, and thus permit blood and faecal matter 
to escape into the peritoneal sac, and inflame it, and destroy the 
animal. 
In the third case, as death is the inevitable consequence of 
invaginations, which certain symptoms prove to exist in portions 
of the intestines to which we cannot obtain access, the operation 
only hastens the fatal termination of the case, and, perhaps, causes 
it to be attributed to the imprudence or unskilfulness of the operator. 
In our opinion, therefore, a division of the hernial portion of the 
rectum ought not to be attempted, merely because we are unable 
to reduce the intestine, or to retain it when reduced, but only in 
the first case of the three which we have mentioned, namely, when 
we have nearly a certainty that the invagination is a simple one, 
and also nearly a certainty that the solution of continuity in the 
rectum will not pass beyond the pelvis. Being assured of these 
circumstances, the removal of certain superficial portions of the 
thickened mucous membrane, by means of a flat and curved pair of 
scissors, is far preferable to the entire division of the intestine. 
The vagina in the bitch is subject also to displacement, com- 
plete descent, and which remain long after the action of the cause 
which produced them, and which, most frequently, is parturition. 
This kind of hernia sometimes exceeds the size of a large pullet’s 
egg. The reduction of it in every case is not easy, but the 
retention of it offers still greater difficulties, whatever kind of 
pessary or bandage is employed. Tired of ineffectual attempts to 
reduce a protrusion so unpleasant and disgusting, we have twice in 
the course of last year attempted the separation of the hernial por- 
tion of the vagina ; in the first case by a circular ligature, and in 
the second by distinct sutures, each including a third of the base of 
the vaginal pouch. 
