509 
ISxtrartss 
Old Rupture of the Diaphragm. 
By M. Yog eli, of Lyons. 
On the 30th of April 1831, about 5 p.m., I was desired to 
examine a middle-sized bay horse, in unusually high condition. 
He had violent colic; he was continually lying down and rising 
again ; his respiration was peculiarly jerking, and during the few 
moments that he stood, he furiously pawed the ground. He had 
scarcely finished his afternoon’s feed, and therefore I did not 
suspect the existence of indigestion, and I refrained from bleed¬ 
ing. I made them rub him, and cover him, and trot him gently, 
while we prepared an emollient injection, and an infusion of 
Roman chamomile as a drink. These seemed to relieve his pain, 
and he continued tolerably quiet during an hour and a half: 
then the pains returned with greater violence than ever. I ad¬ 
ministered an ounce of sulphuric ether, and had him again led 
out of the stable. He there struggled, and rolled, and beat 
himself about, until, covered with foam and sweat, and appa¬ 
rently worn out with fatigue, he threw himself on the litter, and 
was quiet for a little while. 
The pains then returned anew : he couched like a dog, with his 
fore-limbs doubled under his chest, and his head stretched out 
on the litter, and in that position he made frequent attempts to 
vomit, and anti-peristaltic intestinal commotion was evidenced 
by a peculiar working of the flanks, and certain unnatural efforts 
which were made every instant; the tail also was in continual 
motion in an oblique (bi-lateral) direction. In this state of things 
I administered an ounce of laudanum in a pint of water. 
At this period M. Jouygla, first veterinary surgeon to the 
squadron, arrived accidentally at Douai, and came to see my 
patient. The result of our first consultation was almost a nega¬ 
tive one; but on a second examination an hour afterwards, and 
an attentive observation of the symptoms, he pronounced that it 
was some abdominal rupture, and that death was at hand : the 
horse died nine hours afterwards. I confess that this prognosis 
threw a perfectly new light on the case, and that I had not pre¬ 
viously dreamed of the possibility of a rupture. 
On the following morning we examined the carcass of our pa¬ 
tient, and observed the following lesions :—More than seven yards 
of the small intestines, and in the highest state of inflammation, 
had penetrated into the thoracic cavity, through an aperture 
more than three inches in circumference, and situated rather 
more than two inches below, and at the side of the cesophagean 
VOL. vi t. 3 u 
