A NEW METHOD OF REDUCING HERNIA. 
73 
physic, &c.; and in a few days punctured the swelling in differ¬ 
ent places, whence a quantity of fluid escaped, and the swelling 
gradually diminished in size. In about ten days it had entirely 
disappeared along the chest and abdomen; but a considerable 
enlargement still remained in the left iliac region. This I often ex¬ 
amined, and from the extent and hardness around, could scarcely 
make myself certain whether it was hernia or a collection of mat¬ 
ter. No man is obliged to be always right. I came to the latter 
conclusion, and determined to open the tumour and let out the 
matter. I made an incision cautiously through the integument, 
when a quantity of bloody-coloured fluid escaped. I thought I 
was right, and taking a bistoury, I enlarged the opening a little; 
when at each act of respiration, part of the intestines protruded. 
I immediately closed up the opening with a pin and tow, and 
had the horse put into the stable. Fearing that sad inflammation 
might take place from the intestines being, probably, wounded, 
I visited him on the next day: but no bad result had followed. 
The wound healed, the swelling gradually left the part, and 
nothing but the soft hernial sac remained, measuring about ten 
inches in length, seven in breadth, and protruding nearly or quite 
four and a half inches. The horse was perfectly healthy. 
I proposed to operate on the animal, assuring the owner that, 
if I did not cure the horse, I could do no harm. He for some 
time hesitated ; but one day, strangulation seeming to have taken 
place, and the animal being in extreme pain, he was taken out of 
the stable to an open court in order to die. When I arrived, 
however, he was considerably better; I then got full liberty to 
do any thing for him I pleased, and immediately put him under 
the following preparation :— 
I had him secured in a stall, where he could get at nothing to eat. 
I gave him a dose of physic, and only as much boiled barley 
twice a-day as I thought would merely keep life in him, with a 
single handful of hay at mid-day. In about a week I gave him 
another dose of physic, and kept him on the same regimen for 
seven days more. By this time the abdomen was greatly reduced 
in size, and the hernial sac was also considerably reduced. I 
then fired the tumour through its whole extent, in lines about 
half an inch apart, and pretty deep, and applied a strong blister; 
continuing the same short commons until the wound was healed. 
It was then little larger than a person’s hand. Not content 
with this, I repeated the operation, both the firing, blistering. See. 
The result fully answered my expectations. 
lie has since been at all sorts of work, has stood the test of two 
years, and only on minute inspection can the lines of the firing- 
