62 ANALYSIS OF CONTINENTAL JOURNALS. 
and purgative treatment was again had recourse to, in order 
to combat these manifestations, but the mare died on February 
16, 1871. An autopsy made forty-five hours after death 
revealed, in addition to the lesion of general and recent peri¬ 
tonitis, due to the escape of fieculent matter into the ab¬ 
dominal cavity, the very interesting alteration above-named. 
The thoracic organs were normal,—the cerebro-spinal organs 
were not examined. The small intestine, the greater portion 
of which is now preserved in the Museum of the Brussels 
Veterinary School, was remarkable for the very intense 
sanguineous impregnation it offered, and for the considerable 
volume and the bosselated appearance it presented in a part of 
its extent, and which gave it a certain resemblance to the 
colon. For about seven feet, this intestine, the normal dia¬ 
meter of which is from one to one and a-half inches, had 
acquired a mean circumference of ten inches. By a simple 
inspection, but still better, by an examination of the organ 
after it had been inflated, it could be seen that it did not 
possess the same thickness nor the same structure throughout. 
In the upper moiety, corresponding to the insertion of the 
mesentery, the longitudinal plane of muscular fibres was de¬ 
ficient, but in the opposite moiety all the tunics were complete. 
The transition from one side to the other was abrupt, and the 
attenuation of the upper wall very evident. At the extremi¬ 
ties of the normal portion of the intestine the two borders of 
the longitudinal muscular plane joined at an acute angle. 
The solution of continuity in this place should be attri¬ 
buted to over-distension, followed by rupture of the circular 
fibres ; but the very marked sanguineous impregnation in all 
the tunics did not permit the nature of the alterations in the 
elements of the tunic, even when examined microscopically, 
to be made out. 
The sacculations observed on the surface of the intestine 
did not extend to the whole circumference of the organ, hut 
were limited to the part in which the longitudinal fibres 
were deficient; the partial strangulations to which this bos¬ 
selated appearance was due were situated at somewhat 
regular intervals from one another, and corresponded to the 
places at which the vessels passed, in bifurcating, from the 
mesentery to the two surfaces of the intestine. 
The passage of intestinal matters into the peritoneal cavity 
took place by an inconsiderable perforation in one of the 
bulges. 
Wehenkel, taking the salient points in the history of the 
case into consideration, is of opinion that this particular 
lesion of the muscular plane of the intestine dates from the 
