396 
VENTRAL HERNIA IN A MARE. 
or remove the tumour, even had this been possible; but the 
novelty of the case excited my attention, and has induced 
me to forward you the facts relating to it. 
VENTRAL HERNIA IN A MARE. 
By J. R. Hill, Assistant to J. A. Hughes, M.R.C.V.S., 
Leominster. 
I was requested by C. Vevers, Esq., of Ivington Park, 
near this town, to make a post-mortem examination of a 
mare that was found dead in the stable this morning, and 
which was said to be in foal. 
On my arrival I found the animal had been skinned. My 
attention was first drawn to a protrusion of the intestines on 
the left side. The size of the rupture was about two feet. 
On inquiring I was informed that, before the man com¬ 
menced skinning the animal, he observed a very large, as he 
thought, swelling, and as soon as the skin was removed from 
that part the small intestines, as well as the uterus containing 
the foal, protruded. There was a rupture of the uterus at 
the neck, which was so extensive that it was nearly through. 
There was, likewise, a large quantity of coagulated black 
blood in the pelvis, bladder, and uterus with the foal. The 
mare had always stood in the stable between two other 
horses, of which she was the master. She was found on her 
left side, and from the state of the straw where she had lain, 
it did not seem as if she had struggled much. To all 
appearance she was quite well the night previous, nor was 
there any mark of a blow on the outside of the skin or of 
hernia of the abdomen externally. 
The mare’s time to foal was not until the latter part of 
June or the beginning of July. 
