INTUSSUSCEPTION OF THE CAECUM. 
397 
A blister was also applied to the abdomen. 
I now gave a decided opinion that there existed some 
organic lesion, the precise nature of which it was difficult to 
determine, and that there was but little hope of his ultimate 
recovery. 
6th.—The symptoms are about the same. He lies quietly 
stretched out at full length, with extended limbs, but now 
and then raising his head and casting an anxious look at his 
side. 
8th.—Little or no alteration. The bowels not having re¬ 
sponded since the 6th, I gave 01. Lini Oj. 
10th.—I was informed that he continued in the same state 
throughout yesterday, lying down nearly all the time. He 
drinks a little gruel at times. His bowels are moved and he 
urinates freely. 
11th.—On my visit I found a marked difference in my 
patient. The pulse numbers 72, and is tremulous, the visible 
mucous membranes are of a leaden hue, the extremities 
cold, and the breathing much quickened. On pressing the 
abdomen he experienced pain, as shown by the deep groans 
which he gave. It was evident that dissolution was near 
at hand, therefore on leaving I requested to be informed of 
his death. He died next day. 
With much interest I proceeded to make a post-mortem ex¬ 
amination, when I found that the caecum was inverted and had 
passed as far as possible into the colon. Its coats were very 
much thickened, and quite black in colour. The peritoneal 
surface was coated with a thick layer of lymph, undergoing 
purulent degeneration, and the interior of the viscus, as in¬ 
verted, contained a large quantity of whey-coloured fluid. 
The part of the colon into which the caecum had passed was 
considerably thickened and inflamed ; but the other portions 
of the intestines as well as the stomach presented no marked 
abnormal appearances. Both kidneys were somewhat en¬ 
larged, and the left contained a small quantity of a muco¬ 
purulent fluid. An old adhesion existed on the left side of 
the chest. 
This case will probably be interesting to your readers. To 
me the fact of an animal living so long—eighteen days—with 
such an important lesion, is both novel and instructive. The 
circumstance of the bowels responding to medicine would 
show that the opening of the ileum into the caecum could not 
have been much obstructed, and therefore that the caecum itself 
only caused a partial filling of the colon at this part. 
A question suggests itself to the effect of the possibility of 
a recovery in a case of inversion of the caecum. If an animal 
