LIVERPOOL VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 511 
in a single instance has the operation been productive of fatal or 
dangerous results, and rarely has it been attended with any untoward 
result. 
Previous to my adoption of this practice it had frequently been my 
misfortune to see valuable animals suffering from great pain, excessively 
distended in their abdomen with gas, or tympanitic, breathing hurried 
and difficult, surface of the body bedewed with cold perspiration, 
stupid at times, at others almost delirious, pulse rapid and feeble, and 
accompanied with a whole train of death-like symptoms, which in spite 
of a speedy application of the best known remedies died. A 'post¬ 
mortem examination revealed a lesion of the diaphragm, stomach or 
intestines, but in some cases an entire absence of any such lesion existed, 
death being brought about by blood poisoning from absorption of noxious 
gases or asphyxia. In such cases 1 have attended for hours, exerted 
myself to the utmost, but unsuccessfully; have felt powerless and dis¬ 
tressed in consequence of my inability to relieve the suffering patient; 
hence I came to the conclusion that a new departure was needed, and 
as every fresh innovation is eyed suspiciously by unprofessional and 
some professional people, I for a time practised in secret. 
I will now, with your permission, deal with the subject more definitely 
under the following heads, viz.:—I. The cases to be operated upon. II. 
The trocar and canula to be used. III. Mode of operation, part 
operated on, and why ? IY. The result. 
I. —Whenever called to an animal presenting considerable distension 
of the abdomen from accumulation of gas in the intestines, suffering ab¬ 
dominal pain, and otherwise urgent symptoms, I introduce the trocar and 
canula at once (do not wait until you have great prostration), which 
frequently affords immediate relief and renders further treatment often 
unnecessary ; but I always administer an aloetic ball or 01. Lini, with 
01. Tereb., thereby stimulating the bowels to remove the cause of the 
flatulency. In other cases the tympany may not be excessive but the 
protracted abdominal pain almost continuous. Here you may give exit 
to the gas with considerable benefit to your patient. 
I do not introduce the trocar and canula, unless it be an urgent or 
protracted case, without first applying the usual remedies. 
II. —The instrument I use is six inches in length and a quarter of an 
inch in diameter, made by Messrs. Burgess, Willows, and Francis, 
London; its length enables it to enter the bowels in extreme or slight 
distension. The others I have here for your inspection, and are, in my 
opinion, extreme in being too short or too long. The small one, in 
some cases, will not reach the bowel; the other will, on account of its 
length, pass into the ingesta, and become blocked. 
HI._Invariably the right side is the most suitable from its prominency. 
I have the animal bridled, placed alongside the wall or partition, and, if 
of a vicious nature, a foot held up; I then make ah incision a quarter of 
an inch in length in the space midway between the external angle of the 
ilium, the transverse process of the lumbar vertebrae, and the last rib, 
viz. the right hypochondriac region. The trocar and canula being then 
thrust in, slightlv downward and forward, enters the caecum ; the tiocar 
is then withdrawn, giving exit to the gas, which you can hear rushing 
through the canula. If the latter becomes blocked it is necessary to r e¬ 
insert the trocar. After the gas ceases to escape the canula may be 
removed. 
My reason for operating in this region is that you enter the caecum, a 
bowel invariably containing much gas under these conditions, and lieie 
you have the termination of the ilium and commencement of the colon, 
