VALUE OP RECTAL EXAMINATION IN DIAGNOSIS. 
337 
fresh larch” No wonder the mule had a haggard appearance. 
- We examined the mule and concluded that he was pretty 
weak to stand an injection of eserine, yet that would be bet¬ 
ter; with all that .oil and salts and lard in him, he would soon 
succumb, so we gave a hypodermic injection of i y 2 grains ese¬ 
rine, which was followed in about thirty minutes by violent 
straining, with protrusion of the rectum, but no passage of 
fasces. After the effects of the eserine had passed away, we 
made a rectal examination. This was hard to accomplish as 
there was a large distended body filling the pelvic cavity, 
but lying closer to the right than to the left side. By man¬ 
ipulation it was found to contain gas, and its shape, its mus¬ 
cular bands and its origination from the right illiac region 
was evidence enough to identify the organ, while its position 
accounted for the distention. 
When once diagnosed the treatment was simple and effi¬ 
cient. It was so large and tense that it could not be pushed 
ahead and it could not be replaced without surgical interfer¬ 
ence. With a common trocar and calnula the hand was in¬ 
serted into the rectum and the trocar plunged through the 
walls of the rectum and ccecum, allowing the gas to be liber¬ 
ated. The walls of the ccecum had no sooner collapsed than it 
loosely dropped over the rim of the pelvis into place. A small 
injection of eserine brought fasces, oil, etc. in a very few min¬ 
utes. We discharged the mule from our hospital in a few 
days, looking and feeling much better and having passages as 
regularly as his mate. 
Another. —On Friday, Nov. 8, 1889, we were called to 
the Emporia Avenue livery barn to see a brown horse. He 
was stretched out in a position to pass urine, straining occa¬ 
sionally and passing small quantities of urine. He was quite 
uneasy, yet not suffering intensely. He was at this time pass¬ 
ing some faeces. By questioning the stable men, there was 
nothing to indicate any symptoms of bowel trouble, but all 
the symptoms they had seen and all that showed while we 
were there, were those of the urinary apparatus. Yet to us it 
was a peculiar case. The temperature was normal, pulse the 
same, a fair appetite for food and water, yet he was in some 
