ASCITES. 211 
up and down, frequently breaking out into a cold sweat. Y r . S. 
repeated, Jbx, et enemas. 
8 p. m. —Embrocation repeated to abdomen. 
Sept. 4tth .—Much worse; respiration short and quick; pulse 
eighty; ears and legs cold; abdomen much more distended. 
Died 9 a.m., Sept. 4th. 
Post-mortem Examination. 
Upon opening the cavity of the abdomen a considerable 
quantity of bloody fluid immediately made its escape. The coats 
of the intestines, both large and small, as well as the mesentery, 
putting on unusual vascularity ; and the peritoneum displaying nu¬ 
merous purple blotches upon the caecum and colon. On removing 
the former intestine a little to one side, I observed close to it, or 
rather lying underneath it, a dark-coloured substance, which, on 
examination, proved to be the ileum strangulated or twisted, 
close upon its termination in the caecum. It presented the ap¬ 
pearance rather of a mass of extravasated blood than intestine ; 
and, on being laid hold of, proved to be quite rotten in its tex¬ 
ture. The continuous portion of the gut, to the extent of three or 
four feet, was greatly discoloured. The whole of the small intes¬ 
tines, as well as the stomach, were distended with air; and their 
villous coat showed signs of high inflammatory action, as also 
did that of the colon. 
In addition to this, effusion had taken place into the cavity of 
the abdomen, to the amount, as near as I could compute it, of 
three and a half or four gallons of fluid. 
ASCITES. 
The subject of this disease (a marc) suddenly experienced a 
difficulty of drawing her breath, on the 13th of August 1829, 
which was attended with a quick threaddy pulse, and with cos¬ 
tiveness, without manifesting any other sign whatever of abdo¬ 
minal derangement. 
She was bled, had injections administered, and took half an 
ounce of purging mass, and the same quantity of nitre. 
The abstraction of blood was followed by diminished respiratory 
action; and she became comparatively tranquil, and remained 
during the whole of the afternoon, to appearance, much relieved. 
At eight o’clock next morning the respiration became again 
disturbed; the pulse was seventy-five, and small. She made 
frequent but fruitless attempts to stale, every now and then paw¬ 
ing the litter with her off fore foot: extremities cold ; surface of 
the body bedewed with cold sweat, with distention of the abdo¬ 
men. V. S. repeated 
