BARIUM CHLORIDE. 
41 
hours, I found the case in about the same condition as when first 
seen. The trocar was again used and the mare removed to my 
hospital. An intravenous injection of fifteen grains of barium 
chloride was made soon after, which immediately produced 
audible peristalsis and straining, but no flatus passed, although 
the borborigma could plainly be heard for an hour or more. 
Every little while the abdomen would become excessively tym¬ 
panitic and the use of the trocar made necessary. I had been 
using hyposulphite of soda very freely all the while and the 
gases began to generate more slowly, and then came a period of 
some hours of quiet. Again the case became uneasy—peristalsis 
entirely absent, and I made the second injection of the barium. 
This was about twenty-four hours after the first injection, and 
was followed by the same general symptoms—namely, audible 
peristalsis and straining, but unaccompanied by the passage of 
flatus. The case gradually grew worse, and died in about thirty- 
four hours after I first saw it. An autopsy revealed a torsion of 
the colon and a rupture of the stomach. 
In all cases where the drug was used, its action was equally 
prompt and characteristic. Usually flatus passes in a few seconds 
after the injection is made, and relief is given almost immedi¬ 
ately. 
Unfortunately it is not in all cases that we meet with that 
this agent can be successfully employed, but those in which I 
believe it will be found of^ greatest value, are such as after the 
first violent symptoms have somewhat subsided, to reappear 
again. A cessation of peristalsis at this stage is almost always 
a notable condition. Up to this time the ordinary line of treat¬ 
ment has given satisfactory results, but now fails to give 
relief, and the practitioner is somewhat at a loss to know 
just how to proceed. The pulse is fairly strong,—tympa¬ 
nites slight, but the breathing is becoming accelerated and the 
patient more uneasy. Thus far my experience leads me to 
believe that barium chloride fits this place exactly and relief 
follows its administration almost immediately. 
So long as nature keeps up a reasonable amount of peristalsis 
