382 RUPTURE OF THE VESSELS OF THE MESENTERY. 
She was taken ill on Saturday morning, the 25th February, 
when out at watering order. While going along the road, 
about one mile from the barracks, she dropped down sud¬ 
denly on the ground, head foremost, kicked violently, blowed 
very much, and perspired profusely. The officer on duty 
ordered her head to be bathed with cold water, as he thought 
she had experienced an attack of megrims, and her body to 
be rubbed dry, as she was wet all over. 
When first I saw her she was coming along the road, stag¬ 
gering like a drunken person, carrying her head very low, 
ber nose almost touching the ground. She had to be sup¬ 
ported by men on each side of her. 
When she arrived at the barracks, I put her into a loose 
box. She immediately laid down, and remained very quiet 
for several minutes. The pulse was imperceptible, the visible 
mucous membrane were blanched, the eyes glassy, the mouth 
and extremities very cold; respirations intermittent, breath¬ 
ing sometimes at the rate of 60 in the minute, and then 
becoming quite natural. She appeared to be suffering very 
much, groaned occasionally, the perspiration running off the 
body, and she looked every now and then at her sides. 
I came to the conclusion that she was suffering from 
internal haemorrhage; I therefore gave the usual remedies, 
combined with Tinct. Opii in small doses, at intervals ; had her 
legs well rubbed with stimulating liniment and bandaged, but 
could get no heat in them; wisped and clothed the body 
well, and threw up repeated enemas of tepid water. She 
rose several times, but was so weak that she could only with 
difficulty stand. She still kept her head low r , and continued 
to get gradually weaker until one o’clock, when she made a 
tremendous rush towards the box door and there died. She 
lingered about four hours and a half. 
1 made a post-mortem examination shortly afterwards, and 
found her abdomen full of blood (five small pailfuls). The 
peritoneal lining of the abdomen was completely studded 
with ecchymosed spots ; the mesentery of the small intes¬ 
tines was in several places quite black and thickened, and 
the vessels were ruptured; the intestine, opposite to the 
affected mesentery, was also black; on the external surface 
of the stomach, at its greater curvature, I found a fibrinous 
patch about the size of the palm of the hand, resembling in 
structure that found on the surface of the diaphragm. I 
was unable to find where the blood came from, except it 
was from the broken-up mesenteric vessels. It appeared to 
be venous blood. There was a large quantity of dark-co¬ 
loured fluid in the pericardium. I had not the opportunity 
