99 
UMBILICAL HERNIA, TERMINATING IN 
RUPTURE OF INTESTINE. 
By S. Lomas, M.R.C.V.S., Winslow, Cheshire. 
On Monday, December 11th, I was called upon to attend 
a thoroughbred filly, the property of Mr. A—. On my 
arrival I found the case to be one of umbilical hernia, ac¬ 
companied with ^ considerable amount of effusion into the 
subcutaneous areolar tissue, more especially in front of 
umbilicus. The tumour was firm, hard, and hot, and the 
animal somewat distressed. The history of the case was as 
follows: the filly had been affected with umbilical hernia 
from her birth, but the protrusion was not larger than a hen^s 
egg previous to Saturday, December 9th, on which day the 
groom found the filly down in her box with her legs towards 
the “ boskin,” and her back towards the centre of the box, 
a position against which she had to struggle hard to regain 
her feet. However, he took little notice of her at the time, 
but on the following day he observed that the navel was more 
swollen than usual, and that the swelling was extending along 
the under part of the belly to a considerable distance. After a 
careful manipulation of the hernia, which failed to satisfy me 
that it was strangulated, I carefully scarified the swollen 
parts in front of the umbilicus, and ordered fomentations to 
be steadily applied. During the next five days the effusion gra¬ 
dually decreased and had nearly disappeared by the 19th, but 
the discharge which came from these incisions was now found 
to be foetid. As the hernia was still large and hard, a com¬ 
press was applied on the 20th and kept on until the 22nd, 
when on removing it I observed that there was more foetor 
than usual, and that the pad was stained with feculent 
mater. On making a careful examination, I found a solution 
of continuity in the parts beneath the skin—a sac in fact— 
anteriorly placed to the umbilicus. The contents of this sac 
were pressed out and found to consist of alimentary matters, 
such as half-masticated hay, oats, and bran, mingled with some 
feculent fluid which was very fetid. On exploring the inte¬ 
rior of the cavity I found a sinus leading upwards and back¬ 
wards to the hernia proper, but with the exception of this 
passage, the hernia and sac were separated by what appeared 
to be a fibrinous deposit. Besides the local symptoms just de¬ 
scribed, the constitutional disturbance was such as to forbid any 
hope of the animaFs recovery, and from this time she slowly 
