EXTRACT8 FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
515 
SUBCUTANEOUS HERNIOTOMY. 
By M. Sarciron. 
A barb stallion is taken with slight colics while exercised. 
He is agitated, paws, stretches hitnself behind, looks towards the 
left inguinal region, does not lie down ; the loins are stiff, walk¬ 
ing difficult, respiration and circulation accelerated, pulse small. 
The left testicle is much swollen, hard and painful to pressure, 
the vaginal sac is distended, spermatic cord hard and painful. Bj 
rectal examination a portion of the intestine is felt in the inguinal 
ring. 
Diagnosis .—Acute inguinal hernia, with serious prognosis. 
Having failed to reduce it by taxis, and with hope to save the 
animal as a stallion for breeding purposes, he was operated upon 
by the author as follows : 
The animal being etherized, the left testicle held by the ope¬ 
rator with the left hand, with the straight bistoury, an incision 
two aud a half centimetres in length w’as made from forward back¬ 
ward, upon the most prominent point of the external side of the 
testicle. The scrotum and dartos are opened with curved scissors 
and the index, the cellular tissue underneath uniting the erythroid 
and fibro-serous layers is isolated and these membranes exposed 
as far as their superior portion. This is then slightly punctured 
with the straight bistoury a little below the inferior inguinal ring, 
the puncture being enlarged with the straight scissors turned from 
backward forward, sufficiently to admit the index finger. The 
upper edge of the wound is raised with a tenaculum and the tes¬ 
ticular mass is depressed downwards. The left index, carefully 
oiled, is easily introduced in the cavity of the sac, and feels with¬ 
out difficulty its contents. Above, the canal is closed ; the intes¬ 
tines and the cord above the inferior opening are strongly stran¬ 
gulated. An ordinary blunt bistoury is then introduced, resting 
upon the index, as a guide, its sharp edge turned backwards, 
gently pushed beyond the strangulation, and by a slight motion 
outwards the fibro-serous covering of the sheath is divided. Though 
the strangulation is reduced, it is not sufficiently to allow the re¬ 
turn of the intestines; the hand in the rectum then siezes it and 
