INGUINAL HERNIA IN SWINE. 
295 
occurred in six weeks. It should not be forgotten, however, that the 
hernia can often be reduced via the rectum, without opening the 
abdomen. 
(4.) PERINEAL HERNIA IN SWINE. 
Both boars and castrated swine often suffer from perineal hernhe. 
The hernia is generally one-sided, very seldom double-sided, and its 
contents usually consist of a portion of bowel which, in castrated amrna s, 
is often adherent to the sac. Omental hernias are rarer. In swine 
perineal hernia is usually congenital and hereditary, or develops during 
the first few weeks of life, seldom later. . . 
Symptoms and course. In sucking pigs the swelling may le ie size 
of a man’s fist. The testicle lies at the bottom of the scrotum, which, 
in consequence of the thin and yielding character of its skin, may 
be greatly enlarged. Raising the fore-quarters increases the swelling, 
raising the hind-quarters diminishes it; whilst thrusting the finger 
upwards into it discovers the existence of dilatation of the abdomma 
ring. Sometimes the rupture is so small as only to be detected on 
castration. The little animals fail to develop, whilst the rupture 
gradually increases in size ; but spontaneous recovery is sometimes 
seen. Though strangulation is not frequent, it occasionally happens 
both in boars and castrated animals, and is associated with the same 
symptoms as in other animals—colic, increased hardness and pain in 
the swelling, and difficulty in replacing the hernia. 
Prognosis is more favourable in pigs than in horses, the peritoneum 
being less sensitive, and not resenting operative interference to the same 
extent, though castration of a ruptured boar requires particular care, 
and sometimes ends fatally. . , 
Treatment. In castrating ruptured sucking pigs, the animals are 
placed for some days on short rations, and starved for ten to twelve 
hours beforehand. The covered operation is selected and the ligature, 
which should be rather thick, applied as high as possible, and 
drawn moderately tight, but not sufficiently to cut through the tunica 
vaginalis, which might lead to prolapse of the bowel. To avoid this 
danger Stockfletli sutured the skin, whilst Gerlach inserted a deep 
interrupted suture. . 
Should the hernial contents be adherent to the processus vaginalis 
they must be carefully separated, injury to the bowel being avoided. A 
case of Eberhardt’s shows that even incision into the bowel is not 
always fatal in pigs. Meyer, in cutting through an adhesion left a 
portion of processus vaginalis adherent to the bowel, but had good 
results. On account of such adhesions the operation is usually more 
