36 
RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH. 
By the same. 
On the evening of the 15th of September last, I was re¬ 
quested to see a cart-horse, belonging to the same owner as the 
foregoing case. He had eaten with his usual hearty appetite 
early in the morning, and was then put to the waggon with the 
other horses, to go to Southampton. By the time he had got 
six miles he seemed to be in much pain, and wanted to lie 
down. He was taken on by the carter three or four miles fur¬ 
ther, and on his getting worse was left in a stable. A farrier 
was sent from Southampton, who gave the horse a drench, and 
bled him. In the afternoon he was sent home behind the w^ag- 
gon, and shortly after his return I saw him. 
On my going into the stable, I observed a dark-coloured, 
sour, offensive fluid issuing from his nostrils, and which had 
been running about ten minutes before I saw him. He was 
covered with a cold clammy sweat, and not the slightest pulsa¬ 
tion was perceptible. Every now and then he would stretch 
out his fore legs, lean backwards and downwards until his abdo¬ 
men nearly touched the ground, and then rise up again with a 
groan, after which the fluid from his nostrils issued in increased 
quantity. I told the attendants they had better remove him 
from the stable as soon as possible, for fear of his injuring the 
other horses in his struggles, as he would not live half an hour. 
He was removed with difficulty, and in about twenty minutes 
(during which he continued vomiting by his nostrils) he died in 
the greatest agonies. 
Sectio Cadaveris .—On opening the abdomen the next morn¬ 
ing, the contents of the stomach, consisting mostly of bran, 
were found mingled with the intestines. A large rupture ex¬ 
tended nearly throughout its larger convexity. The stomach 
was still about half full of food, and, judging from the quantity, 
both liquid and solid, found in the abdominal cavity, and the 
quantity vomited (at least six quarts), this viscus must have 
been most enormously distended. It appeared much inflamed, 
and patches of ecchymosis were discoverable in the intestines; 
but the other viscera were found in a healthy state. The horse 
was a ravenous feeder, and his diet mostly consisted of dry bran, 
which, on mixing with the liquid in the stomach, no doubt in¬ 
creased in bulk, and caused the rupture. 
Do you think, Messrs. Editors, that the rupture took place 
soon after the horse was put to work in the morning, or that the 
overloading of the stomach caused pain and spasm, and the 
stomach became lacerated during the struggles? And why should 
the vomiting take place so shortly prior to death ? 
