143 
A CASE OF UMBILICAL FISTULA. 
Communicated by Mr, Dick. 
In the month of June, 1831, I received a letter from Mr. 
T. Thomson, V.S. Redstone, Perthshire, an old pupil, commu¬ 
nicating an account of a case of artificial anus in a horse which 
he then had under his care. The case is so rare, if not quite 
unique, that I regret having delayed so long forwarding it to 
you; but by some mischance it has been mislaid until now. I 
give it in his language :— 
The horse, a fine four-year old, was bought by Mr. Donaldson, 
Grasewell, Carse of Cowrie, in the Kinross market, last spring. 
He had at that time a considerable enlargement at the umbi¬ 
licus, but did his work for some time very well ; and in the 
beginning of April he was seized with a ting,^’ as the foreman 
called it; but had been observed stiff, and unwilling to go to 
work from the time he was bought. The farrier was sent for, 
and treated him according to his ability ; and the horse got bet¬ 
ter. He was in two or three days again put to work; but the 
driver observed him to be still very stiff, and unwilling to work. 
He shewed no other symptoms of pain, so far as the farrier’s ob¬ 
servations extended. In a short time after this, an opening 
formed at the navel, by which the whole of the faeces were passed 
off. The farrier was sent for, who stated he had never seen or 
heard of any thing of the kind ; but advised that the horse should 
labour as usual, in order to work it off, which was otherwise likely 
to work his bowels out. I was then sent for. I stitched up the 
opening, which was large enough to admit a person’s fist, and 
applied a roller with a pad of tow over it, also occasionally ad¬ 
hesive plaister. Adhesion took place, and granulations formed 
very rapidly for some time; but a very small opening remained, 
which seemed extremely obstinate, yet was making a little pro¬ 
gress, and to all appearance would have been entirely closed in 
a short time. Without any alteration of symptoms, however, he 
died ; and, on examination, I found his intestines in many places 
perforated by ulceration, apparently the effects of lumbrici. 
There seemed to be no disease about the umbilical opening, ex¬ 
cept adhesion between the intestines and the parietes of the 
abdomen. I found it to be a part of the ileum that had fallen 
into the opening, about a foot from the coecum. Nature had 
formed a tube of about two inches long, quite distinct from the 
ileum, by way of a rectum ; but when it was a good deal healed 
up, air seemed to be sucked in by it, and passed off per anum. 
In drinking, the water passed off by it without any of the ali- 
