/ 
RUPTURE OF THE VESSELS OF THE MESENTERY. 383 
of measuring it, as the pericardial sac was cut through in 
taking out the heart, 
I may state that the subject of this communication was 
considered one of the healthiest mares in the battery, was 
always in good condition and spirits, until two or three days 
before she died, when the driver observed her not to be so 
hearty as formerly. She had served in the Crimea, but since 
she came home has not been ill a single day. 
REMARKS ON THE ABOVE BY ASSIST.-PROE. VARNELL. 
There are only a few points in the above case necessary to 
be noticed. The conclusion come to by Mr. Anderson, at 
the time his attention was first directed to this case, namely, 
that the mare was suffering from internal haemorrhage, was 
fully borne out by the post-mortem examination. Further, 
that the loss of blood depended upon a giving way of the 
coats of the mesenteric blood-vessels, there cannot be the 
slightest doubt. Indeed, an examination of the portion of 
intestine sent to us, with the mesentery attached to it, afforded 
us sufficient grounds to assert that such was the case. In 
proof of this, the space between the two layers of peritoneum, 
at the attached border of the intestine, was occupied by a 
quantity of effused blood, which had also become infiltrated 
between the coats of the intestine itself. Here and there 
were observed lacerations in the peritoneum, through which 
blood, apparently, had escaped; consequently the immediate 
cause of death is easily understood. 
In a pathological point of view, the question that suggests 
itself is. What gave rise to this condition of the coats of the 
larger blood-vessels—for it was not confined to the capillaries 
—whereby a tendency to rupture was induced? Could it 
depend upon any structural change which had gradually 
taken place ? or was it referable to the unhealthy condition 
of the animal generally, by which that part of the nervous 
system supplying the intestines became more particularly 
affected, thus inducing loss of function and its results? 
We need not theorise upon what treatment ought to have 
been pursued beyond that adopted by Mr. Anderson, because 
the symptoms, as given by him, were of such a nature as 
precluded the possibility of therapeutics of any kind being 
of any avail. 
