RUPTURED STOMACH. 
131 
under treatment for strangles. The leading symptoms were 
a pendulous head, with swelling on each side of the neck. 
On opening the mouth the foetor from the fauces was in¬ 
tolerable. Everything that he took came back through the 
nostrils. The pulse was quick and weak, and the mucous 
membranes of the nasal cavity of a livid hue. 
On inquiry, I found that a ball had been given him three 
days before with a pointed stick, and that a swelling of the 
throat took place very soon after. 
Prognosis unfavorable, being satisfied that the oesophagus 
was ruptured, and that some ingesta had escaped at the 
aperture, causing the swelling. He died on the 30th. 
Post-mortem .—The upper part of the oesophagus was found 
to be in a putrid condition, and its coats to have given way 
for a considerable distance below the pharynx. The tho¬ 
racic portion of the tube was, however, but little affected. 
A large quantity of ingesta had escaped, and was lying in 
the surrounding cellular tissue and among the muscles of 
a o 
the neck. 
I could not find the precise spot where the injury was 
first inflicted, in consequence of the highly decomposed state 
of the oesophagus. The stomach was empty. 
RUPTURED STOMACH. 
By the Same. 
A brewer’s horse, four years old, which had had the 
strangles, was turned into a field of new clover, while it was 
very wet. On the following day, October 11th, he was 
purged violently, for which opiates were given. I saw him 
at 11 a.m. on October 12th. He was still purging. The pulse 
was 50. He ate but little, yet seemed not to suffer from pain. 
At 6 p.m. he became much worse. The pulse rose to 120, 
and was indistinct at the jaw. Great distension of abdomen 
was present, and the lungs were so much compressed that 
he could hardly breathe. At 10 p.m. he died. 
Post-mortem examination .—Lungs highly congested, chiefly 
from pressure of the contents of the abdomen. The colon 
and other bowels greatly distended with gas. The stomach 
was ruptured about its middle, as was also the diaphragm con¬ 
tiguous to that part of the stomach. Some of the contents 
of the stomach had escaped, both into the thorax and ab- 
