ABDOMINAL TUMOUR AND RUPTURE OF THE COLON. 685 
I may add that three weeks previously to the first attack I 
fired him on both hocks. He was then living on green food, 
was slightly relaxed in his bowels, and rather reduced in 
condition. 
With much interest I proceeded to make a post-mortem 
examination, as I was anxious to learn the nature of the 
disease and cause of the poor animal’s death. Upon open¬ 
ing the abdominal cavity an extensive rupture of the colon 
presented itself, through which a large quantity of faeces had 
passed into the cavity. Where the rupture had taken place 
the coats of the intestine were very much ulcerated and easily 
broken down by the finger. The other portions of the intes¬ 
tines, and also the stomach, presented no marked abnormal 
change. The tumour, weighing seventy pounds, was situated 
principally in the left hypochondriac region. It was attached 
closely to the colon, and slightly to the ileum. 
The animal had been in Mr. Bissell’s possession eighteen 
months, was regularly worked and always appeared to be 
healthy. I shall be happy to have your remarks as to the 
nature and cause of the tumour, also the time you suppose 
it would require for its formation. 
I remain, 
Yours respectfully. 
To Professor Varnell. 
REMARKS ON THE ABOVE BY PROFESSOR VARNELL. 
The tumour referred to in the above communication was 
globular in form and slightly nodulated on its surface. From 
its great size it must not only have occupied a large space in 
the abdominal cavity, but also have mechanically interfered 
with the function of the viscera. It is very seldom that we 
meet with so large a specimen of the kind. 
In attempting to diagnose cases of this description we 
labour under great difficulties; in fact, it is often not 
until we have had the patient some few days under treatment 
that we are led to suspect the existence of an abdominal 
tumour, and even then its precise situation is doubtful, and 
its nature even more so. This difficulty Mr. Hardy no doubt 
experienced; nevertheless, on the 17th day of July, 
twelve days after he was first called in to see his patient, he 
gave it as his opinion that a tumour existed in the abdomen, 
or a calculus in some part of the intestines, which was the 
probable cause of the animal’s illness, and that there was 
very little hope of recovery. Such was Mr. Hardy’s prognosis, 
based upon the best diagnosis he could make; and under the 
