426 
EXTRACTS FROM EXCHANGES. 
teresting topic. The queries : Why does not the horse ordinar¬ 
ily vomit ? Can the horse vomit irrespective of abdominal 
lesions ? What lesions especially conduce thereto and where¬ 
fore ?—are all disputed points whose solution may be arrived at 
clinically rather than through any other ways. A 23-year-old 
mare—previous health good—fed chiefly upon grass and soft 
boiled potatoes, pulled a loaded wagon to market eleven miles 
away, was then stalled for five hours, during which times she was 
copiously supplied with oats. Upon the return of the journey, 
greenish matter discharged itself—using the owner’s words— 
every five minutes from each nostril. Upon her reaching her 
stable, the author was sent for, who found the mare with legs 
outstretched, anxious facial expression, but with no evidence of 
marked pain anywhere ; after 3 or 4 minutes a wineglassful of 
strongly smelling greenish fluid poured out of each nostril, do¬ 
ing so without any apparent effort at retching or straining on 
the part of the mare. The pulse was very rapid and weak, 65, 
the membranes injected. The author diagnosticated vomiting 
as a result of rupture of the stomach. The locality being re¬ 
mote, the author had to content himself with the remedies at 
hand ; he therefore ordered a mustard plaster to the abdomen 
and 3 ss brandy in § i water, which remedies to his surprise 
seemed to stop the vomiting for 6 hours, at the end of which 
period the vomiting recurred but less frequently and in smaller 
quantities; slight tremors then seized the animal, the other 
symptoms grew worse, viz. : face became more and more pinched 
and anxious, pulse weaker and weaker, and death ensued quietly 
about 24 hours after the first visit. The autopsy showed exten¬ 
sive tears in various directions in the wall of the stomach ; the 
wall of the stomach was very thin ; food was scattered all over 
the abdominal cavity ; evidences of acute peritonitis were pres¬ 
ent ; judging by the stage attained by the inflammatory process 
the rent must have been a recent one, say of 24 hours duration 
at least. The interesting points of the case were : 1st, the 
early onset of the vomiting, it having made the farmer first 
aware that something was amiss ; 2d, the ease with which the 
vomiting occurred, it seeming to be as easy as ordinary swal¬ 
lowing. 
The lesion was such as was to be expected from the nature 
of the case. A very old mare, in whom the walls of the stom¬ 
ach had thinned out both as the result of old age and the na¬ 
ture of the food, was suddenly made to perform extraordinarily 
hard work, was then fed copiously with oats, then made to jour- 
