132 
STRANGULATED HERNIA, ETC. 
have resorted to the covered operation. The animal was 
eventually subjected to the examination of others, and the 
tumour pronounced to be hydrocele. He was finally operated 
on by a very clever and successful practitioner, who opened 
the scrotum, when out came such an alarming quantity of 
gut that the animal died in the hobbles. I merely mention 
this to show how easily we may be mistaken in our diagnosis, 
and further to prove how different such a case is from 
stricturecl hernia. In the latter there is no fear of an 
alarming volume of intestine overwhelming us, unless by 
accident or carelessness we dilate tbe stricture too freely. 
Some years ago, when in the 4th Lancers, I had a case of 
paralysis of the penis, after a severe attack of “ bursauttee,” a 
malady peculiar to India during the rains, and which I view 
as a disease of the blood, wherein we have a deposit of pus, 
inspissated in the cellular tissue. The penis hung pendulous 
from the sheath. After all remedial measures had failed, I 
determined on amputation. I must say I felt rather nervous 
at the thought of such an operation, and its possible results, 
but there was nothing else for it, and so I proceeded to 
perform the operation. 
Having prepared the animal by physic, I cast him, and 
fastened a broad band of tape securely to that part of the 
organ that was to be left, with the canula introduced as it 
would remain after the operation. Then I boldly, with two 
or three cuts, amputated the diseased portion, subduing 
haemorrhage with the actual cautery, and was agreeably sur¬ 
prised to find so little haemorrhage, and so little apparent 
ground for all my fears. I certainly was never so much 
taken in in all my life in the issue of an operation that pre¬ 
viously seemed so formidable. The animal was returned to 
his stall:—he urinated without any difficulty through a female 
pewter catheter, secured by tape over the loins, and with 
very simple treatment, and attention to cleanliness and 
ordinary dressing, it resulted in a perfect cure, and his return 
to duty. 
The next case I have to relate was a case of plugged or 
impacted oesophagus. The horse, a ravenous feeder, had 
eaten till he had plugged the oesophagus from its cardiac 
portion, nearly up to the pharynx. After endeavouring to 
pass tepid water as a drench, which was immediately rejected, 
I tried to pass the probang, which struck as if against 
a brick wall, but strange to relate, on more than one occasion 
it passed freely, and anon stuck hard and fast again. I then 
cast him, he having become inimical to the probang, and was 
astonished to find it pass again quite easily, and without the 
