EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
369 
testine. The intestinal mass was reduced by the taxis, but 
then it was found that adhesions with the abdominal walls ex¬ 
isted at the point where the peritoneum had been torn during 
the first operation, having been lacerated by the hand in¬ 
troduced in the rectum. From this day the patient grew 
worse, acute peritonitis followed, and the animal died a few 
days afterwards. It was found at the post mortem that the 
large colon at its pelvic curvature, and a portion of the small 
intestines were adherent to the abdominal walls at the pelvic 
entrance on the left side, and that an abscess existed on a 
level with the adherent portions. The author thinks that 
death was, caused by the rectal manipulation made to relieve 
the adhesions, and that if the abscess had been left alone it 
would most probably have evacuated through the inguinal 
tract, and thus the peritonitis, instead of becoming general 
and fatal, would have remained local and in all probability 
harmless .—Annales de Belg. 
FATAL HEMORRHAGE DUE TO A NAIL. 
By Mr. Daignet. 
A six-year-old mare was suddenly taken with colic, which 
soon disappeared, and having been placed in a box stall, she 
laid down and died several hours after without exhibiting the 
slightest symptom indicating the approach of her sudden 
ending. At the autopsy the stomach was found four times 
its normal size and filled with clotted, together with a small 
quantity of liquid, blood. This fluid was also found in a small 
portion of the small intestines, about five or six yards in 
length; it was all mixed with mucosities. The large colon 
and the coecum were distended with a mass of food, hard and 
dry. The oesophagus, at about the middle of the thoracic 
portion, had a wound about one-quarter of an inch long, con¬ 
cealed by a dark infiltration through the surrounding con¬ 
nective tissue. This wound was connected with the posterior 
aorta, which presented also, at that point, a wound with ir¬ 
regular edges, and measuring about one inch in length. Death 
Avas due to an aortic hemorrhage. The cause of it was found 
