REPORTS OF OASES. 
613 
accurately ; to cultivate our powers of observation, that we 
may be better able to interpret nature’s laws in health and 
disease, and be able to discriminate between the different 
tissue changes, and know the history of such changes from 
the very beginning—then can we hope to logically predict 
the result of the treatment and the time required to accom¬ 
plish cure or repair most successfully. 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
‘ ‘ Careful observation makes a skillful practitioner, but Ms skill dies with him. 
By recording his observations he adds to the knowledge of his profession , and assists 
by his facts in building up the solid edifice of pathological science .' 1 ' 1 — Veterinary 
Record. - 
RECTAL OBSTRUCTIONS. 
By A. E, Metzger, M.D.C., Clyde, Ohio. 
Although quite a few cases of rectal obstruction of one 
form or other have been reported through your columns, the 
one I wish to call your attention to may help to impress upon 
those of the profession who do not already make early rectal 
examinations, of its necessity in cases where symptoms of im¬ 
paction are present. The subject, a bay mare, eight years old, 
was brought to my hospital December 2, 1893, with the history 
that she had been very uneasy since midnight, either lying 
down or stretching constantly, also that she had been seen to 
strain at intervals, but was unable to void faeces Upon examina¬ 
tion pulse was found somewhat quickened, temperature normal, 
also borborygmus present, which fact led me to suspect some 
rectal obstruction. I made an examination per rectum, dis¬ 
covering a large fluctuating tumor at the entrance of the pelvis 
above and to the left of the rectum, which from its pressure 
completely obstructed the passage of faeces. Ol. lini. 1 quart 
was administered with enemas of warm water, with the hope 
of being able to soften the faeces sufficiently to admit of their 
passage, but all such treatment proved of no avail so long as 
the tumor remained, and the mare grew constantly worse until 
7 P. M., when I informed the owner that the only thing that 
remained to be done was to puncture the tumor with a trocar 
