328 
INVAGINATION OF THE BOWEL. 
together in a point. The canula is of tinned iron, and has at its upper part 
an opening 4-| inches long in one direction and If inches in the other; below, 
the aperture measures 4 inches in the one, and If in the other direction 
(fig. 151). The hair is cut from the seat of operation, the skin cleansed, and 
the instrument applied like a trochar, but as it requires considerable force to 
thrust it into the rumen, a moderately heavy hammer or mallet is employed. 
After removing about a third of the contents of the rumen with a pair of 
spoon-shaped forceps, whose blades are J inch (6 mm.) broad, and 16 inches 
long, Brauer attaches a funnel to the canula, and pours in 10 to 15 quarts of 
salt water. 
Treatment of the wound, in rumenotomy and after the use of Brauer’s 
instrument, is conducted on general principles. 
As this operation is most frequently performed in summer, when flies 
are common, it is best to apply a dressing which guards against insects 
and injury and soiling by the tail or mouth. Smearing the parts with 
tar serves a similar purpose. To prevent relapse some care is required 
in feeding after operation. Bor further information on this point, hand¬ 
books on special pathology should be consulted. 
Heyne, in 1836, recommended “ punctio ventriculi ” in the horse to remove 
gases from the stomach. Apart from the fact that diagnosis is very difficult 
in these cases, gastric tympanites very seldom occurs in the horse, and 
generally only as a consequence of stasis in the small intestine, in which 
case the operation cannot have lasting results. Add to this that puncture 
of the horse’s stomach is always dangerous to life, and it will be understood 
why it has not been practised. 
IY.—INTUSSUSCEPTION OR INVAGINATION OF THE 
BOWEL. 
In oxen invagination of the bowel forms one of the most frequent causes 
of fatal colic. In horses and dogs it is of rarer occurrence. While 
operation for this condition has not hitherto been attempted in horses, it 
has been invoked with considerable success in oxen and dogs. Excessive 
and irregular peristalsis may cause several feet of the small intestine to 
become intussuscepted. The outer (invaginating) portion strangulates 
the inner (invaginated), and disturbs circulation; the onward movement 
of ingesta is stopped, and, broadly viewed, the same conditions obtain as 
in strangulated hernia. Oxen may survive for five to ten days, or even 
longer, but horses die rapidly. In exceptional cases the invaginated portion 
is said to become necrotic, to pass forward through the invaginating 
piece, and be discharged with the faeces. Invagination is commonest in 
the rectum or small intestine, but in the horse Merten, Hiibner, and 
others have observed passage of the caecum into the colon. 
Symptoms. The disease begins with a severe attack of colic, which 
may last twelve hours, and is followed by subsidence of pain, though 
