44 
REPORTS OF CASES. 
tions, the heaving at the flanks more pronounced, mncons mem¬ 
branes now highly injected ; about flve minutes later he gave 
another roll and got np ; his countenance was anxious, and he 
looked around to his flank. He stood with his legs apart, and 
commenced to perspire profusely, making many attempts to lie 
down, but was afraid to do so. Half an hour later he went down 
suddenly and died. Post-mortem revealed a rupture of the 
stomach towards the pyloric orifice ; some of the contents of 
the stomach were in the abdomen. The animal had been over¬ 
fed, causing indigestion and over-distention. Rupture was, in 
my opinion, caused by mechanical violence, 
NITRIC ACID IN THE TREATMENT OF UMBILICAE HERNIA. 
An article by M. F. Pencil (see March number Journal of 
Comparative Medicinf. I have tried this treatment for umbili¬ 
cal hernia, and with very satisfactory results. Of three cases 
two were completely cured, with one application. The third 
case yielded to a second application in fifteen days. Method of 
operation is simple. Take a piece of cotton or oakum, and after 
saturating with pure nitric acid, paint the tumor over its entire 
circumference, passing the swab over it three or four times. 
There is little fear of protrusion of the bowel. 
CANTHARIDES POISONING IN A HORSE. 
By W. A. Heck, D. V. M., Kansas City, Kan. 
I believe it is rare that a veterinarian has the opportunity to 
witness a fatal case of cantharides poisoning in the horse, there¬ 
fore the following case which occurred in my practice may prove 
interesting and instructive. Many, no doubt, will be surprised 
that so small a quantity will cause death in so short a time. 
The drug was administered to the horse by a foolish young- 
man who had heard that cantharides was an aphrodisiac, and 
gave it for this effect; now he is a sadder but a wiser man. 
The subject was a three-year-old saddle stallion, of unusual 
merit, bay iii color and weighing about looo lbs. 
July iith, 1896, at 3 o’clock p. m., he was given as a drench 
in water two drachms of powdered cantharides. The desired 
effects were looked for closely, but, alas! they never came. 
Instead of “bracing up,” he looked a little sick, and the owner 
began to feel alarmed and came directly to my office. I saw the 
horse about thirty minutes after he had received the drench, and 
before he had become very sick. He stood in his box, with 
head down in the feed trough, and breathing rather hurriedly 
