564 
RUPTURE OF THE RECTUM IN A MARE. 
the peritoneum and the walls of the abdomen, urged on, as it 
evidently was, by a mysterious but salutary power. As it pass¬ 
ed on, the tissues which it was piercing immediately closed. 
The eliminatory power which was at work to effect all this, and 
which to very different substances, and even to collections of fluid, 
giving this power of travelling on safely and unerringly towards 
the surface, is a very curious and interesting subject of conside¬ 
ration. 
Le Zooiatre du Midi, Janvier 1838. 
CASE OF AN OPENING BETWEEN THE RECTUM 
AND THE VAGINA IN A MARE. 
By M. G. W. Schrader, F.S., Hamburg, 
On the 7th of May 1837, I was requested by Herr S. to 
come and examine a six-year-old mare, which he had bought a 
few days before; for he had remarked that, although she was 
otherwise perfectly well, yet, when she urined, balls of dung 
came away at the same time. On the following morning I 
attended at his stable. Having oiled my hand, I passed it 
into the rectum, and, having cleared away first all the dung 
which was collected within it, I followed the direction of this 
intestine as far as my arm could reach, and found nothing amiss, 
until, on drawing out my arm, and my fingers being directed 
downwards, and about a hand's breadth from the sphincter, I 
came to an opening which led in a sloping direction from the 
rectum to the superior portion of the vagina. I then examined 
the vagina, and succeeded without the least difficulty in passing 
my finger from it into the rectum. This opening was about an 
inch in diameter, but could easily be distended; the edges of it 
were even and smooth, and the animal did not appear to feel any 
pain when it was touched. 
This mare had, it appears, foaled once, and, most probably, the 
foal was badly situated; and, either by straining or exertion, or 
some violent treatment, this rent was occasioned. 
The reason why no greater quantity of dung passed through 
the vagina is thus explained, that, by the pressure of the dung, 
this opening closed itself like a kind of valve; and it is only in 
the course of a long delay of the dung by the sphincter, that a few 
balls were pushed through the valve, and discharged with the 
urine. The flatus, on the contrary, always passed out through 
the vagina, because the sphincter gave greater resistance to it 
than the artificial opening did. 
Magazin f ur die gesammte Thierheilkunde, 1837, p. 261. 
