EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
361 
STRANGULATION OF THE SPERMATIC CORD, RESEMBLING STRANGU¬ 
LATED INGUINAL HERNIA IN THE HORSE. 
By H. Nocard. 
A colt eighteen months old had been sick since 2 o’clock in 
the morning. From the history of the case, he was supposed to 
be affected with strangulated hernia. He was first taken with 
violent colic, and continued ever since to suffer extreme pains, 
kicking, throwing himself on the ground, rolling and resting on 
his back, and constantly looking towards the left flank. 
At the time of visit he is quieter. When loose, he assumes 
the complete decubitus on the right side, with the legs partly 
flexed; the face is contracted, the body covered with perspira¬ 
tion ; the respiration accelerated and irregular, accompanied with 
low moaning; pulse small, quick and hard. The exploration of 
the testicular region reveals the following appearances : On the 
right side, the testicle is down and moveable, the cord flexible, 
painless and easily detected with the fingers; on the left side, on 
the contrary, the scrotum is retracted, the testicle drawn and 
fixed; the cord very voluminous, very painful, and impossible to 
unroll; rectal examination is impossible in the standing position, 
and in the dorsal it gives but imperfect results; the left inguinal 
ring seems dilated and wider than the right, and is filled with 
an abnormal mass, but it is impossible to find the two ends of 
the intestinal fold supposed to be passed through it. This was 
attributed to the difficulty of manipulation through the rectal 
walls, and the external local signs seeming sufficient to justify the 
diagnosis, the operation was proceeded with. 
Nothing important appeared in the first steps of the operation. 
A longitudinal incision was made of the scrotum and dartos, with 
enucleation of the testicle, showing it covered with the parietal 
layer of the vaginal sheath; puncturing that covering and mak¬ 
ing a longitudinal incision with the directory, the opening of 
the sheath allows the flow of about one deciliter of very bloody 
serosity, and exposes—not the supposed ruptured intestine, which 
did not exist, but an enormous spermatic cord, of the size of the 
arm, gorged with blood, with venous cords and lymphatics, some 
