575 
RUPTURE OF THE DIAPHRAGM. 
By J. T. Cochrane, M.R.C.V.S. 
Dear Sir,—I send you the following case, as it is one not of 
every day occurrence, and which, if you think worth while, you can 
insert in your valuable Journal, The Veterinarian. I shall al¬ 
ways be most happy to contribute to it, my only wish being for 
the advancement and improvement of our common profession. 
I am, dear Sir, 
Your’s obediently. 
W. Percivall, Esq. 
I WAS called in on Friday evening, the 11th of September, to see 
a bay mare belonging to the 1st or King’s Dragoon Guards. I 
was informed by the farrier of the troop that she had been on parade 
that morning and gone through rather severe exercise in the bar- 
rack-yard, a place somewhat confined for cavalry evolutions, and 
was pulled up suddenly after a charge. In about an hour after her 
return to stable she began to evince symptoms of abdominal pain, 
and continued so until five o’clock, P.M., when I was sent for. The 
farrier had given her a couple of doses of gripe mixture at the time. 
The symptoms she presented were as follow:—Constantly shift¬ 
ing her position—head stooped and turned to one side, the right— 
hind quarters crouched and turned to the same side as the head— 
body bedewed with cold perspiration—pulse quick, and hard to the 
feel at the jaw—membranes highly injected—no disposition what¬ 
ever to lie down, and could not bear the least pressure on the left 
side of the abdomen about the region of the stomach and spleen— 
attended with a peculiar lifting of the flanks, indicative of broken 
wind; but found on inquiry her lungs were previously sound; no 
tympanitic appearance of the abdomen. 
Treatment .—Gave her a draught composed of spt. tereb. and 
spt. nit. eetheris, with tinct. opii, more as a placebo than any good 
expected from it, as I told Colonel Smith, the officer in command 
of the squadron here, after closely observing her for a few minutes, 
that there must be internal injury, which I suspected to be rupture 
of the diaphragm, and that at the left side. She had passed nothing 
from her bowels, but her kidneys acted as in health. 
10 o’clock P.M. —Inflammatory symptoms considerably increased. 
Asked if she had lain down or attempted to roll herself. She had 
lain down merely for a couple of seconds, and made no attempt to 
roll. This confirmed me in my opinion as to the nature of the injury, 
along with the peculiar action of the flanks: there was no disposi¬ 
tion to sit on the haunches, mentioned as a leading symptom by 
