678 
INTESTINAL STRANGULATION. 
is of frequent occurrence in Switzerland, and is too frequently 
fatal ; that the hernia depends on the peritoneum being torn in the 
pubic region, and the spermatic cord, or the cord or substance 
by which the testis was suspended in its scrotal cavity, remaining 
floating within the abdomen. A portion of the small intestine finds 
its way through the opening made in the peritoneum by the act 
of violent leaping, or some other cause, and becomes entangled 
with and tied by the cord. They are lean and ill-fed cattle that 
are most liable to this accident.” 
“ The characteristic symptoms of this lesion are, suppression of 
the faecal discharge — the voiding of some portions of the intestinal 
mucus, often mingled with a little blood, sometimes of a consider- 
able consistence, and as large as an egg. The animal, on getting 
up, stretches himself, and makes the back a little convex in the 
usual manner, and then retracts it all at once, so that the vertebral 
column assumes a concave form. On examination by the rectum, 
the displaced intestines or the spermatic cord seem to be violently 
stretched, and feel very hard. The animal is continually shifting 
his posture ; the hind leg particularly, on the side on which the 
hernia exists, is continually moved forward. Sometimes that limb 
is palsied, at other times its sensibility is exceedingly increased, 
and particularly at the commissure of the thigh with the sub- 
pubian region.” 
“ The principal cause of this disease is bad food — hay and grass 
Tom marshy meadows — the construction of the stables with too 
great an inclination of the floor — hard work in the mountainous 
regions of that country — the manner in which the animal some- 
times reposes and gets up from sleep on an irregular surface.” 
The prognosis is unfavourable, if the accident happens imme- 
diately after the ingestion of food — if the belly is swollen, and tense 
— if the ears, the horns, the nose, or the thighs are cold — if the pulse 
is small and accelerated, and felt with difficulty — if the respiration 
is stertorous, and the mouth pale, and filled with a glairy fluid.” 
“ The disease lasts three, five, or even nine days. The animals 
to which much liquid is given, although of a calming and emollient 
nature, die the soonest; but that which most accelerates the fatal 
termination is the treatment by excitants, and the continual moving 
about which many veterinary surgeons order.” 
“ The cure can only be effected by an operation; for which pur- 
pose the animal is thrown, with his flank supported against a wall. 
Then, the hair being shaved or cut off from the right groin, the 
operator raises a longitudinal fold of it, and, holding it in his left 
hand, he divides it from above downwards, making a wound suffi- 
ciently large to admit of his hand. In the same way he cuts 
through the abdominal muscles, taking care to divide the costo- 
