568 RUPTURE OF THE LIVER BY A KICK. 
he was before. The pulse was very slow and small; the oody 
was cold all over; the respiration accelerated ; the pupil dilated. 
On striking the sides of the abdomen, which were no longer 
painful, the presence of a fluid in that cavity was easily recog- 
pized. He remained in that position until half past three, when 
he began once more to paw ; and died a little while after. 
The body was opened two hours after death ; it was almost 
cold, the mucous membranes were apparently discoloured, and 
the abdomen was swelled. On the left hypochodrium, at the 
base of the fourth and fifth false ribs, there was a large ecchy- 
mosis, nearly five or six inches in diameter, and which appeared 
to be the result of a violent contusion before death from a blow 
or a fall. The abdomen having been cautiously opened, we found 
in its cavity more than two gallons of black blood, the greater 
part of which was coagulated. We carefully raised the intestines, 
and sponged the blood from them, and assured ourselves that 
there was no rupture of any vessel belonging to them : they con¬ 
tained in them very little blood. The mucous membrane of the 
intestines offered nothing remarkable, except its paleness: it was 
the same with the spleen and the urinary organs; the liver alone 
was the seat of serious lesion. On the left part of its anterior 
face, eight inches from its point, at the place where this organ 
rests on the portion of the hypochondrium on which was the 
ecchyrnosis, which I spoke of just now, there was a solution of 
continuity, with irregular and fringed borders ; a true rupture 
running across the liver, and more than two inches in length : 
clots of blood w^ere contained within it, and hung from its edges. 
It was evident that the haemorrhage proceeded from this opening, 
and its connexion with the ecchyrnosis of the hypochondrium 
could not permit us to doubt that it was produced by external 
violence. 
The viscera of the chest w^ere more or less void of blood, like 
all the others, but not otherwise altered. 
Not being able to believe that such a lesion could be sponta¬ 
neous, or rather, being convinced that it was caused by a blow or 
fall, of which the groom could not be ignorant, I questioned him 
very closely ; and at length extracted from him the following 
account:—That on the preceding day, contrary to his usual 
custom, he had led this horse to drink, with two others belonging 
to the mail, and w'hich could never be put together without 
attempting to kick each other. That he had not been able to 
prevent them from doing this in the w^ay from the stable to the 
river, or even when in the w^ater; that he rode this horse, and 
observed that it was several times kicked in the chest by the 
