REPORTS OF CASES. 
43 
walking exercise till the ball would operate, which it did in 
about twenty-four hours, bringing away a large quantity of 
faeces, but no sand. When the purging ceased there was alto¬ 
gether a decided improvement. Called again in great haste the 
following day, found symptoms presented much the same as the 
day previous, but greatly aggravated, there being intense pain. 
Similar treatment was adopted, with the addition of hypodermic 
injections of morphia sulph., gr. i. No passage of foeces during 
the second day. In the evening the symptoms became so 
alarming that I deemed it best to destroy the animal. The 
post-mortem rather astonished me. I expected to find some¬ 
thing different from the usual impaction of the colon, knowing 
the first ball operated so well. The external appearance of the 
bowels were apparently normal, but I was surprised at their 
enormous weight, and on cutting into the colon I found it con¬ 
tained a very large quantity of sand, broken horseshoe nails, 
etc. (nearly half a bushel). By inquiry into the history of the 
case I found the animal had been, during the previous summer, 
pastured in an adjoining field, which had been over-run with 
sand during the spring floods, also the fact as that the horse was 
an old favorite of the family, he was allowed to run sometimes 
at will around town. The frequent visits to a blacksmith’s 
shop in the neighborhood accounted for the presence of the 
nails, etc. The singular feature of the case lies in the fact that 
there had not been previous to my call a single symptom of 
abdominal pain, with the exception of an attack of a few hours’ 
duration one year previously. 
RUPTURE OF THE STOMACH. 
On September 2, last, I was called to attend a draught horse 
with the following history : The animal was apparently in the 
best of health when he went to work with his mate in the morn¬ 
ing. His daily rations consisted of six quarts of oats and six 
ears of corn, with an unlimited amount of water before and after 
feeding. About the middle of the forenoon the animal showed 
symptoms of colic. When I arrived, I found him uneasy, paw¬ 
ing with fore feet, and lying down frequently. Respiration 
hprried, heaving at the flanks, rapid pulse, ears warm, mucous 
membrane slightly injected. No manure had been passed since 
early morning. I gave chloral hydrate, 3 i, in bolus; also 
oleum lini (raw), one quart. In the afternoon he was no better, 
was lying down mostly all the time from pain. Gave colic 
drench, but he continued to roll about, with quicker respira- 
