550 
RUPTURE OF THE ILEUM. 
the use of any caustic is of little service. I find the powdered 
sulphate of copper answers the purpose better than any agent with 
which I am acquainted. The foot, in the first place, is well 
cleaned by washing with hot water and soap; it is dried : a 
pledget of tow is covered on one side with common tar, and over 
this is spread a thick layer of the powdered sulphate ,• the 
pledget is then introduced between the toes, placed in close 
contact with the digital commissure, and retained by attaching 
its ends to a ligature round the pastern. From the moment the 
escharotic begins to operate, the internal process appears to be 
arrested; but unless that portion of skin upon which the appli¬ 
cation is laid sloughs away, the disease will be re-established. In 
many cases, one dressing is sufficient to produce the sloughing ; 
in others, two or even three dressings may be requisite. When the 
commissure is soft, yielding, and moist, one application is in general 
enough ; others are necessary when this part is hard and horny, 
for then the caustic operates upon it with more difficulty. The 
escharotic loses its power in about forty-eight hours, and it need 
not be removed sooner. At the end of this time it will be seen 
whether or not another application is necessary. More than 
three dressings I have never had occasion to employ. The 
slough comes away with the first, the second, or the third ; and, 
subsequently, the sore is kept clean and washed once or twice a 
day with the acetate of zinc, or any other astringent lotion. 
Nothing more is required The slough once separated, the lame¬ 
ness disappears, and the animal returns to her food, and yields 
her usual quantity of milk. 
I shall not attempt to explain this unorthodox mode of 
proceeding. It is of no consequence where or how I was taught 
to adopt such a plan. I do not announce it as a discovery. 
Within the last twelve months, however, I cannot have tried it 
on less than a hundred cases, and it has not failed once. 
Another practitioner in my neighbourhood can testify that it 
has been equally efficacious in his hands. 
13th September, 1835. 
RUPTURE OF THE ILEUM. 
jBj/ Mr. J. J. Rogers, London. 
Mr. Langworthy was sent for, about a month since, to attend 
a mare belonging to a job-master, in Little Guildford Street, Russell 
Square, and who informed us that she had not been right for a 
week or ten days, but this morning she was considerably worse. 
When we arrived we found it was a lost case : the pulse at the jaw 
