698 
W. A. HECK. 
from “heaves.” Upon lying down it was noticed that she 
would nearly always lie upon the left side. She had that pecu¬ 
liar way of placing her knees, lopping her ears, pointing her nose 
and assuming the attitude which was so conspicuous the day be¬ 
fore. Her pain was constant rather than intermittent, tempera¬ 
ture 102.5. 
Examined per rectum and found that organ empty, but high 
up in the bowel was felt a hard mass, which at first I thought 
to be a tumor, but upon closer examination concluded was faecal 
matter in the large colon. 
Upon auscultation of the abdomen it was discovered that 
peristalsis was absent. My diagnosis now was impaction of some 
part of the digestive tract, for which she was given treatment. 
March 12th, 12 M., found the mare in the garden lying in the mud; 
the owner informed me that he could not keep her in the barn, 
that she would break out in spite of his efforts to the contrary 
and would select the muddiest places in which to lie. The 
same symptoms were manifested as on the days previous. She 
would not eat nor drink, there was no passage of faeces,, no tym¬ 
pany, no peristalsis. The animal was growing weaker. Pro¬ 
nounced the case hopeless and ordered no additional treatment. 
Found dead on the morning of March 13th. Post-mortem 
at ten o\:lock by Dr. Robert Robb and myself. Opened the 
mare on the left side and found laceration of the right pillar of 
the diaphragm close to its tendonoiis attachment. There was 
no laceration of the muscular or aponeurotic portions of the 
diaphragm proper. About the laceration there was serious ex¬ 
travasation and extensive inflammatory changes. The omentum, 
bowels, and contiguous tissues showed evidences of inflamma¬ 
tory invasion. All the other organs normal. Stomach and 
small intestines empty. The mass which had been felt upon 
rectal examination proved to be faecal matter in the large 
colon, which was partially filled and seemed dry and hard. 
This case was interesting from the fact that such conditions 
are so rarely seen; only a few cases of laceration of the dia¬ 
phragm, as a primary affection, are on record and I have not 
