621 
THE DIAPHRAGM, &C. 
she could be got home to her stable, and she died in two hours. 
The rent extended from the ensiform cartilage to the centre of the 
diaphragm. Such a lesion as this must of necessity be fatal. It 
is somewhat difficult, however, to describe the symptoms by 
which an accident of this nature may be clearly designated. 
The breathing must of necessity be most laborious ; yet not the 
short, quick, and painful respiration of inflammation, but a slower, 
more laboured, double effort at expiration. 
Is it always fatal ?—Although a lesion such as this must of 
necessity be fatal, a question arose, whether a slighter rupture of 
the diaphragm might not exist for a long time, only characterized 
by disordered respiration. Not only the possibility, but the ac¬ 
tual occurrence of it has been demonstrated. Consider, gentle¬ 
men, the horizontal position of the thorax of the horse, and ima¬ 
gine a small rupture towards the lower part of it. The lung 
will not protrude into the abdomen, but, from the powerful pres¬ 
sure of the abdominal muscles on a cavity not defended by bony 
walls, some portion of the intestines will be forced against or into 
the thorax. While strangulation does not take place, the injury 
will produce nothing more than disordered respiration, and that 
possibly not to a great degree. It may even be difficult to dis¬ 
tinguish it from broken wind. 
A remarkable Case of Chronic Rupture .—A horse died of 
supposed enteritis : on examination the diaphragm w^as ruptured, 
and a portion of intestine had insinuated itself through the aper¬ 
ture. It was strangulated, and mortified. This must have taken 
some time to accomplish; but as an irrefragable proof of its be¬ 
ing a long-standing case, the edges of the rupture were nearly 
healed, aud a quarter of an inch in thickness. Another horse, 
on the 25th of December, received a violent kick on the right 
side, which broke one of his ribs. His respiration immediately 
became exceedingly quick and laborious, and continued so for 
some hours, when suddenly it resumed almost its natural character. 
He remained quiet more than a week, when he w r as seized with 
violent colic and constipation and fever, which occurred occasion¬ 
ally for the space of five w r eeks, until he died, but apparently 
from inflammation of the wound. A rupture was found towards 
the inferior part of the diaphragm, and the greater part of the 
small intestine had passed through it, and occupied the right 
side of the thorax, and there was strong adhesion of the intestine 
to both of the pleurae; and, what was most extraordinary of all, 
a portion of the intestine had glided along the seventh rib, and 
passed between the longitudinal opening caused by the upper 
part of the fracture, and had entangled itself between the libs 
and the subscapularis muscle, forming a second hernia. 
