574 OPENING OF TIIE RECTUM INTO TIIE BLADDER. 
impossible any methodic autopsy. The carcass was lean, and 
presented the following peculiarities :— 
There was but one kidney, and that conglomerate, and on 
the right side; but it is very bulky, and equal in weight to 
two kidneys of an animal of the same age and magnitude. 
The artery and vein supplying it are double their natural 
volume; and the ureter, much larger than ordinary, is single, 
and opens, after a course of six inches, into the centre of the 
upper surface of the bladder: the bladder itself, though in 
other respects normal, being at this part prolonged from before 
backwards, the same as it is found to be in the young animal. 
Its contents are a mixture of urine and meconium. This 
(the superior side) has two, consequently two apertures along 
its medium line; the ureter occupying the centre, and imme¬ 
diately behind that, the posterior orifice of the rectum. The 
urethra is normal. 
The rectum was enormously distended with accumulated 
faecal matters; and, from having become larger than common, 
suddenly contracts its volume, making a curvature to¬ 
wards the upper part of the bladder, whereupon it terminates, 
being contracted at its opening to -ith or |th of its original 
calibre. Its peritoneal coat is continuous with that of the 
bladder; its muscular fibres likewise spread in all directions 
upon, and become interlaced with, those of the bladder; while 
the mucous coats of gut and bladder become continuous and 
confounded. The circumstances of the termination of the 
rectum being in a manner strangulated from contraction, 
and barely sufficient to allow the passage of the faeces, 
accounts for the extreme state of distension in which the gut 
was found, as well as for the efforts made by the animal dur¬ 
ing life. 
In the two cases just related, the absence of anus was 
accompanied with remarkable anomalies in the posterior part 
of the spine, and in the urinary organs: a circumstance 
suggesting the belief that in such cases it is not the 
absence of anus alone that we have to deal with or to con¬ 
sider. And that in such cases, it appears more prudent to 
prolong the life of the animal until it shall be in a condition 
fit for the butcher. 
In regard to congenital contraction of the anus, attended 
with symptoms of continual efforts to void matters which 
come away from the animal in thread-like particles, the 
affection may be treated with success by the use of tents, 
used so as to serve the purpose of dilators. 
