CYSTITIS, FOLLOWED BY RUPTURE OF THE BLADDER. 507 
serum, as the peritoneum evinced slight traces of inflamma¬ 
tory action. The omentum major was very dark in colour, 
and covered with a thin deposit of sabulous matter, some of 
which was also found adhering to the caecum, colon, and the 
bladder. The latter organ was then examined, and found as 
previously stated. It was very dark coloured externally, 
from inflammatory action, and at its fundus an opening 
existed sufficiently large to admit one’s finger, through which 
the urine had escaped into the abdomen. This, I presume, 
was the result of ulceration, as the coats of the bladder at 
this part were extremely thin, whilst the other portion was 
much thickened, and scarcely to be recognised. The ureters 
appeared to participate in the inflammatory action, but the 
kidneys were perfectly normal. 
I continued my researches throughout the generative and 
digestive organs, and the contents of the thorax also were 
examined, but without discovering in any of these parts fur¬ 
ther evidence of diseased action. 
The above case appears to me suggestive of several im¬ 
portant and interesting questions to the pathologist, the 
solution of which I prefer to leave in the hands of those who 
are better able than myself to enter upon their consideration. 
REMARKS ON THE ABOVE CASE BY PROFESSOR VARNELL. 
This case is valuable, more especially to the junior prac¬ 
titioner, as but few of the kind are to be found in our works 
on veterinary medicine. It is also important on account of 
the well-defined symptoms that were observed throughout 
the whole progress of the disease, all of which plainly pointed 
to the organ affected, and, in the latter stages, even suggested 
the nature of the lesions that induced them. 
The parts sent for my inspection consisted of the bladder 
and a portion of the vagina, the former only showing any 
marks of disease to an extent worthy of notice. This organ 
was contracted to the size of a man’s fist; it retained its ovoid 
form, but was slightly flattened on its upper and under sur¬ 
faces. Its coats, except at its anterior portion, were much 
thickened, and dark in colour; at the fundus they were un¬ 
usually thin, and quite in the centre there existed an opening 
large enough, in the contracted state of the organ, to admit 
the finger, through which, as observed by Mr. Overed, the 
urine had escaped into the cavity of the peritoneum. 
In a pathological point of view, the cause of this opening 
seems to me to be one of the salient points in the case, it 
