268 
TREATMENT OF NON-STRANGULATED HERNIA. 
first examine the hernial sac. If strangulated, the hernia will be found 
to have increased in size, become hard, painful, and tenser than formerly. 
Sometimes symptoms of peritonitis set in, and the animal soon dies if 
reposition is not effected. The appearance of albuminuria in strangu¬ 
lated herniae is certainly interesting from a scientific standpoint, but not 
clinically. 
Prognosis. Strangulated herniae usually kill in a short time, not 
infrequently in twenty-four hours, and as reposition is often difficult or 
comes too late—that is, when necrosis has already set in—'the condition 
must always be viewed as dangerous. Spontaneous reduction is exceed¬ 
ingly rare, partly on account of the accumulation of faecal material in 
the sac, which increases with time, and partly because the incarcerated 
section of bowel soon becomes paralysed in consequence of defective 
circulation, and is then unable to discharge its abnormal contents, even 
when the causes of strangulation have been removed. 
Treatment of non-strangulated herniae. In many cases, particularly 
in slight herniae in young animals, no treatment is required, because 
spontaneous recovery is usual, strangulation rare. Peculiarities of treat¬ 
ment will be separately described in connection with each of the various 
herniae. One differentiates a palliative cure, and a radical cure. The 
first consists in bringing about a gradual diminution in the hernial sac ; 
the radical cure in closing the hernial opening. 
The palliative cure depends on suitable dietetic precautions, supplying 
concentrated and easily digested food, avoiding hard work, and in larger 
animals on the preservation of a suitable position, that is to say, a position 
in which, whilst the animal is in the stall, the viscera will be as far as 
possible removed from the position of the hernia. These measures are 
supplemented by the following :— 
(1) Hernial truss. Although much used in men, trusses cannot be 
employed to the same degree in domestic animals. Trusses for inguinal 
herniae in animals, other than foals, are impracticable, and it is only 
in exceptional cases that the} 7 can be continuously worn in other 
abdominal herniae, though the male hippopotamus in the Berlin Zoological 
Garden wore such a truss for a considerable time. These appliances 
will be described in speaking of inguinal herniae. 
(2) Diminution in the hernial sac and return of the hernial contents 
into the abdomen, by inflammatory and cicatricial processes in the skin 
of the sac produced by infrictions with sulphuric, nitric, or chromic acid, 
or the application of the actual cautery, or subcutaneous injections of 
common salt, alchohol, &c. The artificial inflammation is accompanied 
by swelling in the skin and subcutis, and the contents of the hernia are 
said to gradually return to the peritoneal cavity. Cicatricial contrac¬ 
tion of the cutis follows, and thus diminishes the size of the hernial sac, 
