OBSTRUCTIONS IN THE BOWELS OF DOGS. 285 
marked cases during the animal's illness, added to the ad¬ 
vantage of ascertaining the real or true state of the case after 
death. In ail cases that recover we can only approximate 
the truth by surmise. In some the opinion formed from the 
symptoms may be very wide of the mark, but, the patient 
recovering, the error is never found out. I maintain further 
that the simple fact of a patient recovering is not always a 
certain and satisfactory proof that our view of the case was 
correct, and that the treatment was the best and most proper 
which could have been adopted, any more than it would be 
right to conclude, on the other hand, that because the patient 
did not recover it was a proof that the treatment was im¬ 
proper. But to my point. A few months ago a small 
terrier dog was brought to me, apparently in a sinking con¬ 
dition, from the impaction of a solid compact substance within 
the rectum, and partly projecting from the anus. It appeared 
a perfect fixture, and was so firmly grasped by the sphincter 
ani that it could not be passed backwards or forwards by 
the animal. He had suffered in this way for several days, 
had been constantly yelling, and was in great pain. I care¬ 
fully and gently grasped the substance with a pair of forceps, 
and by dint of drawing gradually and gently, and at the same 
time carefully manipulating the mucous membrane of the 
rectum backwards over the substance, I succeeded in re- 
moving it. On examination, it proved to be an angular¬ 
shaped piece of bone, enveloped in dry and hardened faeces. 
The dog rapidly recovered. But the question of interest in 
connection is, how long had it taken for this large piece of 
bone to pass from the stomach to the end of the rectum, 
bearing in mind at the same time the small calibre of the 
intestine of the dog? Each inch of the bowel, step by step, 
must have been preternaturally distended and yielded to 
admit of its passage at all. 
The second case occurred in a middle-sized dog, of the 
retriever and mastiff breed. About a week or two ago I was 
requested to make a post-mortem examination of him, as it 
was suspected he had been poisoned. He was found dead 
in the morning, having been on the night previously, as 
they believed, in perfect health. I found the bowels quite 
empty, but the stomach full of clean bones, and unmixed with 
any other food. Most of the bones were small and angular, 
and would have filled a good-sized basin. At the pyloric 
end of the stomach, just at its entrance into the duodenum, 
the bones were all of one kind, viz., broken or split cylin¬ 
drical bones, like those of a fowl's leg. These would have filled 
a large breakfast-cup. They were lying across the opening, 
