ENTANGLEMENT AND RUPTURE OF THE INTESTINES. 97 
/ 
flammation pervaded its whole body, particularly that part con¬ 
tained in the pelvis. The colon was injected, but not inflamed. 
The small intestines, particularly the ileum, bore marks of in¬ 
flammatory action. The stomach was rather distended with air, 
but did not seem to have participated in the disease : the peri- 
tonem had a pinky tint on its surface, forming the lining of 
the parietes ; the other viscera appeared quite healthy. 
Observations .— I consider that the rupture of the mesocolon 
and entanglement of the caecum probably occurred during the 
paroxysms in the first instance of gripes on the 31st of March ; 
but how this intestine got within this ligature, I am at loss to ac¬ 
count : that its situation in the hypogastric region and pelvis was 
owing to being confined by the ligature ; that the incessant at¬ 
tacks of gripes were owing to this stricture, which ultimately 
ended in strangulation of the bowels ; that the taxation hur¬ 
ried on the contents of the stomach to the caput coli, and 
produced distention there, and in the base of the caecum anterior 
to the ligature, thus causing violent pain. The animal now com¬ 
menced rolling and tumbling, and forcibly dashing himself to the 
ground ; and during one of these violent falls, the distended base of 
the caecum was ruptured from forcible compression. I consider the 
rupture of the omentum, and entanglement of the small bowels, 
to have occurred during the paroxysms of the last attack, and the 
immediate cause of death to the rupture. 
I hope I do not intrude on the pages of your Journal, by ob¬ 
serving the pleasure I feel on hearing of its increasing one half in 
size; I trust it will be well supported by valuable information, 
and no more soil its leaves with the ire of dissatisfied parties. 
I imagine that was not the original intention of the work, but 
entirely as a source of useful information. We have some¬ 
thing right and something wrong in all quarters; in fact, we 
have all our faults : and I only w r ish every one would try to mend 
one, and that every practitioner may have merit to engage in a 
more lucrative employment than dabbling his hands in troubled 
water. I wish all of them the feeling of that eminent prac¬ 
titioner Mr. W. Percivall, who observes in your last number, if 
they would only forward to the press their stock of practical infor¬ 
mation, that branch of our science would advance “ the practice 
of medicine.” 
