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Contents
Title Page
Contents
Copyright
Ex hi bi t P i ece
Introduction by Ronald D. Moore
Exhibit Piece
Th e C o m m u t er
Introduction by Jack Thorne
The Commuter
Th e I m po s s i b l e P l a ne t
Introduction by David Farr
The Impossible Planet
Th e Ha n g i n g S t r a n ge r
Introduction by Dee Rees
The Hanging Stranger
S a l es P i t ch
Introduction by Tony Grisoni
Sales Pitch
Th e F a t h er- T hi n g
Introduction by Michael Dinner
The Father-Thing
Th e Hoo d Ma k e r
Introduction by Matthew Graham
The Hood Maker
F os t er, You’r e Dea d
Introduction by Kalen Egan and Travis Sentell
 Foster, You’re Dead
Hu m a n Is
Introduction by Jessica Mecklenburg
Human Is
A u t of a c
Introduction by Travis Beacham
Autofac
Read More from Philip K. Dick
About the Author
Connect with HMH
 First U.S. edition, 2017

Collection copyright © 2017 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick

Introductions copyright © held by the respective author of each introduction
‘Exhibit Piece’ copyright © 1987, 1954 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in If, Aug. 1953.
‘The Commuter’ copyright © 1987, 1953 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Amazing, Aug.–Sept. 1953.
‘Impossible Planet’ copyright © 1987, 1953 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Imagination, Oct. 1953.
‘The Hanging Stranger’ copyright © 1987, 1953 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Science Fiction Adventures, Dec. 1953.
‘Sales Pitch’ copyright © 1987, 1954 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Future, June 1954.
‘The Father-Thing’ copyright © 1987, 1954 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Dec. 1954.
‘The Hood Maker’ copyright © 1987, 1955 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Imagination, June 1955.
‘Foster You’re Dead’ copyright © 1987, 1955 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Star Science Fiction Stories, no 3, 1955.
‘Human Is’ copyright © 1987, 1955 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Startling Stories, Winter 1955.
‘Autofac’ copyright © 1987, 1955 by The Estate of Philip K. Dick.
Originally published in Galaxy, Nov. 1955.

First published in Great Britain in 2017 by Gollancz, an imprint

of the Orion Publishing Group Ltd

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to
trade.permissions@hmhco.com or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

www.hmhco.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.

ISBN 978-1-328-99506-3

Jacket art © Amazon Content Services LLC

Author photograph © Frank Ronan

eISBN 978-1-328-99509-4
v1.1017
 Introduction by Ronald D. Moore

Story Title: Exhibit Piece

Script Title: Real Life

Ronald D. Moore is an American screenwriter and producer.

He is best known for developing the re-imagined Battlestar
Galactica series, for which he won a Hugo and a Peabody
Award, and for Outlander, based on the novels of Diana
Gabaldon. He began his career as a writer/producer on Star
Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

The first time I read this piece it was in the context of looking for a
PKD story to adapt for Electric Dreams. Right from the start, I was
attracted to the underlying theme of losing one’s self in another
reality. I’d been playing around in this arena since I started working
on Star Trek, as well as in a pilot I produced for Fox called Virtuality.
When I read ‘Exhibit Piece’ it struck me that there was an
opportunity to do a show about the virtual reality technology that
was just coming into being for the consumer market. I think VR is an
exciting new frontier in entertainment but, as always, we tend to
create new devices first and then think about their societal
ramifications later. The more I thought about a story where the
central character lost himself (or herself) in another world, the more
I realized that I could take the core idea of this short and expand it
out into a bigger exploration of both VR and the nature of reality
itself. I’ve found this happens over and over in the PKD universe—
interesting and provocative themes buried within his work that are
still relevant to our lives many years after they were originally
written. Very little remains of this story in the show, but the heart,
and perhaps more importantly, the brains behind the episode
originate in this tale.
 EXHIBIT PIECE

‘That’s a strange suit you have on,’ the robot pubtrans driver
observed. It slid back its door and came to rest at the curb. ‘What
are the little round things?’
‘Those are buttons,’ George Miller explained. ‘They are partly
functional, partly ornamental. This is an archaic suit of the twentieth
century. I wear it because of the nature of my employment.’
He paid the robot, grabbed up his briefcase, and hurried along the
ramp to the History Agency. The main building was already open for
the day; robed men and women wandered everywhere. Miller
entered a PRIVATE lift, squeezed between two immense controllers
from the pre-Christian division, and in a moment was on his way to
his own level, the Middle Twentieth Century.
‘Gorning,’ he murmured, as Controller Fleming met him at the
atomic engine exhibit.
‘Gorning,’ Fleming responded brusquely. ‘Look here, Miller. Let’s
have this out once and for all. What if everyone dressed like you?
The Government sets up strict rules for dress. Can’t you forget your
damn anachronisms once in a while? What in God’s name is that
thing in your hand? It looks like a squashed Jurassic lizard.’
‘This is an alligator hide briefcase,’ Miller explained. ‘I carry my
study spools in it. The briefcase was an authority symbol of the
managerial class of the later twentieth century.’ He unzipped the
briefcase. ‘Try to understand, Fleming. By accustoming myself to
everyday objects of my research period I transform my relation from
mere intellectual curiosity to genuine empathy. You have frequently
noticed I pronounce certain words oddly. The accent is that of an
American businessman of the Eisenhower administration. Dig me?’
‘Eh?’ Fleming muttered.
‘Dig me was a twentieth century expression.’ Miller laid out his
study spools on his desk. ‘Was there anything you wanted? If not I’ll
begin today’s work. I’ve uncovered fascinating evidence to indicate
that although twentieth-century Americans laid their own floor tiles,
they did not weave their own clothing. I wish to alter my exhibits on
this matter.’
‘There’s no fanatic like an academician,’ Fleming grated. ‘You’re
two hundred years behind times. Immersed in your relics and
artifacts. Your damn authentic replicas of discarded trivia.’
‘I love my work,’ Miller answered mildly.
‘Nobody complains about your work. But there are other things
than work. You’re a political-social unit here in this society. Take
warning, Miller! The Board has reports on your eccentricities. They
approve devotion to work . . .’ His eyes narrowed significantly. ‘But
you go too far.’
‘My first loyalty is to my art,’ Miller said.
‘Your what? What does that mean?’
‘A twentieth-century term.’ There was undisguised superiority on
Miller’s face. ‘You’re nothing but a minor bureaucrat in a vast
machine. You’re a function of an impersonal cultural totality. You
have no standards of your own. In the twentieth century men had
personal standards of workmanship. Artistic craft. Pride of
accomplishment. These words mean nothing to you. You have no
soul—another concept from the golden days of the twentieth century
when men were free and could speak their minds.’
‘Beware, Miller!’ Fleming blanched nervously and lowered his
voice. ‘You damn scholars. Come up out of your tapes and face
reality. You’ll get us all in trouble, talking this way. Idolize the past, if
you want. But remember—it’s gone and buried. Times change.
Society progresses.’ He gestured impatiently at the exhibits that
occupied the level. ‘That’s only an imperfect replica.’
‘You impugn my research?’ Miller was seething. ‘This exhibit is
absolutely accurate! I correct it to all new data. There isn’t anything
I don’t know about the twentieth century.’
Fleming shook his head. ‘It’s no use.’ He turned and stalked
wearily off the level, on to the descent ramp.
Miller straightened his collar and bright hand-painted necktie. He
smoothed down his blue pinstripe coat, expertly lit a pipeful of two-
century-old tobacco, and returned to his spools.
Why didn’t Fleming leave him alone? Fleming, the officious
representative of the great hierarchy that spread like a sticky gray
web over the whole planet. Into each industrial, professional, and
residential unit. Ah, the freedom of the twentieth century! He slowed
his tape scanner a moment, and a dreamy look slid over his
features. The exciting age of virility and individuality, when men
were men . . .
It was just about then, just as he was settling deep in the beauty
of his research, that he heard the inexplicable sounds. They came
from the center of his exhibit, from within the intricate, carefully
regulated interior.
Somebody was in his exhibit.
He could hear them back there, back in the depths. Somebody or
something had gone past the safety barrier set up to keep the public
out. Miller snapped off his tape scanner and got slowly to his feet.
He was shaking all over as he moved cautiously toward the exhibit.
He killed the barrier and climbed the railing on to a concrete
pavement. A few curious visitors blinked, as the small, oddly dressed
man crept among the authentic replicas of the twentieth century
that made up the exhibit and disappeared within.
Breathing hard, Miller advanced up the pavement and on to a
carefully tended gravel path. Maybe it was one of the other
theorists, a minion of the Board, snooping around looking for
something with which to discredit him. An inaccuracy here—a trifling
error of no consequence there. Sweat came out of his forehead;
anger became terror. To his right was a flower bed. Paul Scarlet
roses and low-growing pansies. Then the moist green lawn. The
gleaming white garage, with its door half up. The sleek rear of a
1954 Buick—and then the house itself.
He’d have to be careful. If it was somebody from the Board he’d
be up against official hierarchy. Maybe it was somebody big. Maybe
even Edwin Carnap, President of the Board, the highest ranking
official in the N’York branch of the World Directorate. Shakily, Miller
climbed the three cement steps. Now he was on the porch of the
twentieth-century house that made up the center of the exhibit.
 It was a nice little house; if he had lived back in those days he
would have wanted one of his own. Three bedrooms, a ranch style
California bungalow. He pushed open the front door and entered the
living room. Fireplace at one end. Dark wine-colored carpets.
Modern couch and easy chair. Low hardwood glass-topped coffee
table. Copper ashtrays. A cigarette lighter and a stack of magazines.
Sleek plastic and steel floor lamps. A bookcase. Television set.
Picture window overlooking the front garden. He crossed the room
to the hall.
The house was amazingly complete. Below his feet the floor
furnace radiated a faint aura of warmth. He peered into first
bedroom. A woman’s boudoir. Silk bedcover. White starched sheets.
Heavy drapes. A vanity table. Bottles and jars. Huge round mirror.
Clothes visible within the closet. A dressing gown thrown over the
back of a chair. Slippers. Nylon hose carefully placed at the foot of
the bed.
Miller moved down the hall and peered into the next room.
Brightly painted wallpaper: clowns and elephants and tightrope
walkers. The children’s room. Two little beds for the two boys. Model
airplanes. A dresser with a radio on it, pair of combs, school books,
pennants, a No Parking sign, snapshots stuck in the mirror. A
postage stamp album.
Nobody there, either.
Miller peered in the modern bathroom, even in the yellow-tiled
shower. He passed through the dining room, glanced down the
basement stairs where the washing machine and dryer were. Then
he opened the back door and examined the back yard. A lawn, and
the incinerator. A couple of small trees and then the three-
dimensional projected backdrop of other houses receding off into
incredibly convincing blue hills. And still no one. The yard was empty
—deserted. He closed the door and started back.
From the kitchen came laughter.
A woman’s laugh. The clink of spoons and dishes. And smells. It
took him a moment to identify them, scholar that he was. Bacon and
coffee. And hot cakes. Somebody was eating breakfast. A twentieth-
century breakfast.
 He made his way down the hall, past a man’s bedroom, shoes and
clothing strewn about, to the entrance of the kitchen.
A handsome late-thirtyish woman and two teenage boys were
sitting around the little chrome and plastic breakfast table. They had
finished eating; the two boys were fidgeting impatiently. Sunlight
filtered through the window over the sink. The electric clock read
half past eight. The radio was chirping merrily in the corner. A big
pot of black coffee rested in the center of the table, surrounded by
empty plates and milk glasses and silverware.
The woman had on a white blouse and checkered tweed skirt.
Both boys wore faded blue jeans, sweatshirts, and tennis shoes. As
yet they hadn’t noticed him. Miller stood frozen at the doorway,
while laughter and small talk bubbled around him.
‘You’ll have to ask your father,’ the woman was saying, with mock
sternness. ‘Wait until he comes back.’
‘He already said we could,’ one of the boys protested. ‘Well, ask
him again.’
‘He’s always grouchy in the morning.’
‘Not today. He had a good night’s sleep. His hay fever didn’t
bother him. The new anti-hist the doctor gave him.’ She glanced up
at the clock. ‘Go see what’s keeping him, Don. He’ll be late for work.’
‘He was looking for the newspaper.’ One of the boys pushed back
his chair and got up. ‘It missed the porch again and fell in the
flowers.’ He turned towards the door, and Miller found himself
confronting him face to face. Briefly, the observation flashed through
his mind that the boy looked familiar. Damn familiar—like somebody
he knew, only younger. He tensed himself for the impact, as the boy
abruptly halted.
‘Gee,’ the boy said. ‘You scared me.’
The woman glanced quickly up at Miller. ‘What are you doing out
there, George?’ she demanded. ‘Come on back in here and finish
you coffee.’
Miller came slowly into the kitchen. The woman was finishing her
coffee; both boys were on their feet and beginning to press around
him.
 ‘Didn’t you tell me I could go camping over the weekend up at
Russian River with the group from school?’ Don demanded. ‘You said
I could borrow a sleeping bag from the gym because the one I had
you gave to the Salvation Army because you were allergic to the
kapok in it.’
‘Yeah,’ Miller muttered uncertainly. Don. That was the boy’s name.
And his brother, Ted. But how did he know that? At the table the
woman had got up and was collecting the dirty dishes to carry over
to the sink. ‘They said you already promised them,’ she said over her
shoulder. The dishes clattered into the sink and she began sprinkling
soap flakes over them. ‘But you remember that time they wanted to
drive the car and the way they said it, you’d think they had got your
okay. And they hadn’t, of course.’
Miller sank weakly down at the table. Aimlessly, he fooled with his
pipe. He set it down in the copper ashtray and examined the cuff of
his coat. What was happening? His head spun. He got up abruptly
and hurried to the window, over the sink.
Houses, streets. The distant hills beyond the town. The sights and
sounds of people. The three dimensional projected backdrop was
utterly convincing; or was it the projected backdrop? How could he
be sure. What was happening?
‘George, what’s the matter?’ Marjorie asked, as she tied a pink
plastic apron around her waist and began running hot water in the
sink. ‘You better get the car out and get started to work. Weren’t
you saying last night old man Davidson was shouting about
employees being late for work and standing around the water cooler
talking and having a good time on company time?’
Davidson. The word stuck in Miller’s mind. He knew it, of course.
A clear picture leaped up; a tall, white-haired old man, thin and
stern. Vest and pocket watch. And the whole office, United Electronic
Supply. The twelve-story building in downtown San Francisco. The
newspaper and cigar stand in the lobby. The honking cars. Jammed
parking lots. The elevator, packed with bright-eyed secretaries, tight
sweaters and perfume.
He wandered out of the kitchen, through the hall, past his own
bedroom, his wife’s, and into the living room. The front door was
open and he stepped out on to the porch.
The air was cool and sweet. It was a bright April morning. The
lawns were still wet. Cars moved down Virginia Street, towards
Shattuck Avenue. Early morning commuting traffic, businessmen on
their way to work. Across the street Earl Kelly cheerfully waved his
Oakland Tribune as he hurried down the pavement towards the bus
stop.
A long way off Miller could see the Bay Bridge, Yerba Buena
Island, and Treasure Island. Beyond that was San Francisco itself. In
a few minutes he’d be shooting across the bridge in his Buick, on his
way to the office. Along with thousands of other businessmen in
blue pinstripe suits.
Ted pushed past him and out on the porch. ‘Then it’s okay? You
don’t care if we go camping?’
Miller licked his dry lips. ‘Ted, listen to me. There’s something
strange.’
‘Like what?’
‘I don’t know.’ Miller wandered nervously around on the porch.
‘This is Friday, isn’t it?’
‘Sure.’
‘I thought it was.’ But how did he know it was Friday? How did he
know anything? But of course it was Friday. A long hard week—old
man Davidson breathing down his neck. Wednesday, especially,
when the General Electric order was slowed down because of a
strike.
‘Let me ask you something,’ Miller said to his son. ‘This morning—I
left the kitchen to get the newspaper.’
Ted nodded. ‘Yeah. So?’
‘I got up and went out of the room. How long was I gone? Not
long, was I?’ He searched for words, but his mind was a maze of
disjointed thoughts. ‘I was sitting at the breakfast table with you all,
and then I got up and went to look for the paper. Right? And then I
came back in. Right?’ His voice rose desperately. ‘I got up and
shaved and dressed this morning. I ate breakfast. Hot cakes and
coffee. Bacon. Right?’
‘Right,’ Ted agreed. ‘So?’
 ‘Like I always do.’
‘We only have hot cakes on Friday.’
Miller nodded slowly. ‘That’s right. Hot cakes on Friday. Because
your uncle Frank eats with us Saturday and Sunday and he can’t
stand hot cakes, so we stopped having them on weekends. Frank is
Marjorie’s brother. He was in the Marines in the First World War. He
was a corporal.’
‘Good-bye,’ Ted said, as Don came out to join him. ‘We’ll see you
this evening.’
School books clutched, the boys sauntered off towards the big
modern high school in the center of Berkeley.
Miller re-entered the house and automatically began searching the
closet for his briefcase. Where was it? Damn it, he needed it. The
whole Throckmorton account was in it; Davidson would be yelling his
head off if he left it anywhere, like in the True Blue Cafeteria that
time they were all celebrating the Yankees’ winning the series.
Where the hell was it?
He straightened up slowly, as memory came. Of course. He had
left it by his work desk, where he had tossed it after taking out the
research tapes. While Fleming was talking to him. Back at the
History Agency.
He joined his wife in the kitchen. ‘Look,’ he said huskily. ‘Marjorie,
I think maybe I won’t go down to the office this morning.’
Marjorie spun in alarm. ‘George, is anything wrong?’
‘I’m—completely confused.’
‘Your hay fever again?’
‘No. My mind. What’s the name of that psychiatrist the PTA
recommended when Mrs Bentley’s kid had that fit?’ He searched his
disorganized brain. ‘Grunberg, I think. In the Medical-Dental
building.’ He moved towards the door. ‘I’ll drop by and see him.
Something’s wrong—really wrong. And I don’t know what it is.’

Adam Grunberg was a large heavy-set man in his late forties, with
curly brown hair and horn-rimmed glasses. After Miller had finished,
Grunberg cleared his throat, brushed at the sleeve of his Brooks
Bros’ suit, and asked thoughtfully, ‘Did anything happen while you
were out looking for the newspaper? Any sort of accident? You might
try going over that part in detail. You got up from the breakfast
table, went out on the porch, and started looking around in the
bushes. And then what?’
Miller rubbed his forehead vaguely. ‘I don’t know. It’s all confused.
I don’t remember looking for any newspaper. I remember coming
back in the house. Then it gets clear. But before that it’s all tied up
with the History Agency and my quarrel with Fleming.’
‘What was that again about your briefcase? Go over that.’
‘Fleming said it looked like a squashed Jurassic lizard. And I said—’
‘No. I mean, about looking for it in the closet and not finding it.’
‘I looked in the closet and it wasn’t there, of course. It’s sitting
beside my desk at the History Agency. On the Twentieth Century
level. By my exhibits.’ A strange expression crossed Miller’s face.
‘Good God, Grunberg. You realize this may be nothing but an
exhibit? You and everybody else—maybe you’re not real. Just pieces
of this exhibit.’
‘That wouldn’t be very pleasant for us, would it?’ Grunberg said,
with a faint smile.
‘People in dreams are always secure until the dreamer wakes up,’
Miller retorted.
‘So you’re dreaming me,’ Grunberg laughed tolerantly. ‘I suppose I
should thank you.’
‘I’m not here because I especially like you. I’m here because I
can’t stand Fleming and the whole History Agency.’
Grunberg protested. ‘This Fleming. Are you aware of thinking
about him before you went out looking for the newspaper?’
Miller got to his feet and paced around the luxurious office,
between the leather-covered chairs and the huge mahogany desk. ‘I
want to face this thing. I’m an exhibit. An artificial replica of the
past. Fleming said something like this would happen to me.’
‘Sit down, Mr Miller,’ Grunberg said, in a gentle but commanding
voice. When Miller had taken his chair again, Grunberg continued, ‘I
understand what you say. You have a general feeling that everything
around you is unreal. A sort of stage.’
‘An exhibit.’
 ‘What sort of place is Macon Heights?’ Paine asked. ‘How many
people, would you say?’
‘I don’t know. Five thousand, maybe. I spend most of my time in
the city. I’m a bookkeeper over at Bradshaw Insurance.’
‘Is Macon Heights a fairly new place?’
‘It’s modern enough. We have a little two-bedroom house, a
couple years old.’ Critchet stirred restlessly. ‘How about a commute
book?’
‘I’m afraid,’ Paine said slowly, ‘I can’t sell you a commute book.’
‘What? Why not?’
‘We don’t have any service to Macon Heights.’
Critchet leaped up. ‘What do you mean?’
‘There’s no such place. Look at the map yourself.’
Critchet gaped, his face working. Then he turned angrily to the
wall map, glaring at it intently.
‘This is a curious situation, Mr Critchet,’ Paine murmured. ‘It isn’t
on the map, and the State city directory doesn’t list it. We have no
schedule that includes it. There are no commute books made up for
it. We don’t—’
He broke off. Critchet had vanished. One moment he was there,
studying the wall map. The next moment he was gone. Vanished.
Puffed out.
‘Jacobson!’ Paine barked. ‘He’s gone!’
Jacobson’s eyes grew large. Sweat stood out on his forehead. ‘So
he is,’ he murmured.
Paine was deep in thought, gazing at the empty spot Ernest
Critchet had occupied. ‘Something’s going on,’ he muttered.
‘Something damn strange.’ Abruptly he grabbed his overcoat and
headed for the door.
‘Don’t leave me alone!’ Jacobson begged.
‘If you need me I’ll be at Laura’s apartment. The number’s some
place in my desk.’
‘This is no time for games with girls.’
Paine pushed open the door to the lobby. ‘I doubt,’ he said grimly,
‘if this is a game.’
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walls has proved a direct cause of laceration. The seat of these
ruptures may be at any point, but it is most frequent in front of the
pelvic flexure, or in the floating colon, or directly in the seat of
impaction.
Symptoms. The attack comes on suddenly, perhaps in connection
with some special accident or injury, and is manifested by violent
colicy pains which show no complete intermission. In many respects
the symptoms resemble those of complete obstruction of the bowel,
there is a suspension of peristalsis, rumbling, and defecation, a
tendency to roll on the back and sit on the haunches, an oblivion of
his surroundings and pain on pressing the abdomen. Usually the
shock is marked in the dilated pupil, the weak or imperceptible
pulse, the short, rapid breathing, cold ears, nose and limbs and the
free perspirations. Tympany is usually present as the result of
fermentation. Signs of infective peritonitis and auto-intoxication are
shown in the extreme prostration, unsteady gait, dullness and
stupor, and general symptoms of collapse. The temperature, at first
normal, may rise to 105° or 106° as inflammation sets in, and may
drop again prior to death.
Termination is fatal either by shock or by the resulting peritonitis
and auto-intoxication. Exceptions may exist in case of adhesion of
the diseased intestine to the walls of the abdomen and the formation
of a fistula without implication of the peritoneum.
 RUPTURE OF THE INTESTINES IN
RUMINANTS.
From blows of horns, tusks, etc., from rectal abscess. Symptoms: colic, resulting
in septic peritonitis and sinking. Treatment.
Lesions of this kind usually come from blows with the horns of
others. They may lead to artificial anus as in a case reported by Rey,
or the formation of a connecting sac as in that of Walley. In a case
seen by the author a large abscess formed above the rectum, from
injuries sustained in parturition. This ruptured into the gut leaving
an immense empty cavity in which the hand could be moved about
freely, but which gradually contracted so that the cow made a good
recovery.
André furnishes an extraordinary record of rupture of the colon,
blocked by a potato. It seems incredible that a potato could have
traversed the stomachs and intestine without digestion.
The symptoms are those of violent colic suddenly appearing in
connection with some manifest cause of injury, and going on to
septic peritonitis and gradual sinking.
Treatment is manifestly useless excepting in the case of some such
fortunate condition as in the case of abscess of the rectum in which
the free use of injections and the antisepsis of the abscess cavity
proved successful.
 LACERATION OF THE INTESTINE IN
SWINE.
This is rare and appears to have been observed only in connection
with scrotal and ventral hernias, with adhesion. It may lead to an
artificial anus which in its turn may cicatrise and close, or to the
discharge of fæces into the peritoneal cavity with fatal effect. If seen
early enough, laparotomy with suture of the bowel and careful
antisepsis will be indicated.
 LACERATION OF THE INTESTINE IN
CARNIVORA.

Obstruction and overdistension, necrosis, ulceration, feculent impaction, kicks,

parasites, caustics, abscess, tubercle, cancer. Symptoms: peritonitis following
accident, vomiting, no defecation. Treatment: laparotomy.

The most common cause of intestinal rupture is obstruction by

foreign bodies, with overdistension of the bowel immediately in
front, or necrosis and ulceration of the portion of the bowel pressed
upon. Feculent impaction acts in a similar way. Kicks and other
external injuries sustained on a full intestine will lead to rupture.
Perforation by parasites, by caustic agents swallowed, by abscesses,
and by tubercle or cancer is also to be met with.
The symptoms are those of sudden peritonitis, with marked
abdominal tenderness, tucking up of the abdomen, bringing the legs
together under the body, vomiting, suspension of defecation and
peristalsis. Rabiform symptoms have been noted.
Treatment. As in swine there is every hope of success by suture of
the intestinal wound if done early. The same general method may be
followed as in closing the wound after extraction of a foreign body.
 ABSCESS OF THE BOWEL IN SOLIPEDS.
In strangles, from puncture, kicks, blows, foreign bodies in food, larva, cysts,
large or small, creamy or cheesy, open into bowel or peritoneum, infective
peritonitis. Symptoms: rigor, ill health, unthrift, colics, tender abdomen, tympany,
painful movements, lying, rising, turning, going downhill, rectal exploration,
phlegmonous swelling, pus passed by anus. Treatment: open when it points on
abdominal wall, or when near rectum, antiseptics, support strength, careful
dieting, antipuruleut agents.
This is most common as an irregular form of strangles, the abscess
forming in connection with the mesenteric glands or on the walls of
the intestine. Small abscesses may also implicate the mucous glands
or Peyer’s patches as a result of catarrhal enteritis. Less frequently an
abscess forms in the seat of the puncture of the colon for tympany, or
in connection with blows, kicks, punctures with stable forks, nails
and other pointed objects. Foreign bodies entering with the food and
the cysts of the larvæ of the sclerostomata will also give rise to
suppuration.
These abscesses may attain a large size, especially in strangles, and
involve adhesions between the bowel and other viscera, or the walls
of the abdomen. Or they may be small like peas or beans scattered
along the coats of the intestine or between the folds of the mesentery.
They may be inspissated to the consistency of thick cream or rich
cheese, and they may rupture into the intestine, through the
abdominal walls or into the peritoneum. In the last case infective
peritonitis sets in usually with fatal results.
Symptoms. These are generally obscure. There may have been
noticed a rigor, and there are always marked indications of ill health,
dullness, lack of spirit or appetite, dryness and erection of the hair,
hide bound, insensibility of the loins to pinching, colics after meals,
tenderness of the abdomen, tympany, groaning when lying down or
rising, when turned around short, or when walked down hill.
Sometimes the abscess can be distinctly felt by the hand in the
rectum. When it implicates the abdominal walls there is usually a
diffuse phlegmonous swelling, at first soft and pasty, then firm and
solid, and finally softening and fluctuating in the center. Sometimes
there is the evacuation of pus by the anus or of the investing
membrane of the abscess, and this may be expected to herald
recovery. In case of infective peritonitis there are the usual
symptoms of stiff movement, the bringing of the feet together under
the belly, abdominal tenderness, trembling, hyperthermia, cold ears
and limbs, cold perspirations, great dullness and prostration, small,
weak or imperceptible pulse, hurried breathing and gradual sinking.
Treatment. This is most favorable when the abscess approaches
the surface so as to be punctured through the abdominal walls. In
other cases it is so situated that it can be punctured with trochar and
cannula through the rectum. In such a case it may be evacuated and
injected with a nontoxic antiseptic, the puncture and injection being
repeated as wanted. In the internal and deeply seated abscesses we
must seek to support the general health, give pure air, easily
digestible and nourishing food, and agents that may be hoped to
retard suppuration. Hyposulphite of soda in ½ oz. doses, or sulphide
of calcium in scruple doses, may be repeated two or three times a
day.
 ULCERATION OF THE INTESTINES.

Symptom or sequel of other disease, or from traumas, caustics, neoplasms,

peptic ulcers, verminous thrombosis, tubercle. Catarrhal erosion, peptic, deep,
round ulcer, calculi with irregular ulcers, cord ulcer at mesenteric attachment,
small, follicular, grouped ulcers, sloughing ulcers of infectious diseases, circular
projecting, button like ulcers of hog cholera, microbes. Symptoms: diarrhœa,
black, or red, sloughs, fever, blood stained vomit, manipulation. Treatment: for
foreign body, poison, or infectious disease, careful diet, antiseptics.

Ulceration of the intestines is commonly a symptom or sequel of

other intestinal disorder, such as intestinal catarrh, impaction,
calculus, foreign body, parasites, petechial fever, influenza, glanders,
rinderpest, Southern cattle fever, hog cholera, pneumoenteritis,
rabies, canine distemper. Then there are ulcers, caused by sharp
pointed bodies, by caustic agents ingested, and by obstructive
changes in neoplasms. Peptic ulcers may occur in the duodenum as
in the stomach. Finally local disturbances of the circulation and
especially such as attend on verminous thrombosis, are at once
predisposing and exciting causes of ulceration. Tuberculosis and
other neoplasms are additional causes.
The ulcers may vary in different cases. In catarrh there is usually
superficial desquamation of the epithelium, and erosions rather than
deep ulcers. The peptic ulcer forms on the dependent wall of the gut,
where the gastric secretions settle, and assumes a more or less
perfectly circular outline (round ulcer). Those due to calculus or
impaction, may be irregular patches mostly on the unattached side of
the intestine and resulting from necrosis of the parts most exposed to
pressure. The ulcers resulting from cords stretched along inside the
bowel, are in the form of longitudinal sores on the attached or
mesenteric side of the intestine, where the wall being shorter the
cord continually presses. Follicular ulcerations are usually small,
deep excavations, commonly arranged in groups. Ulcers connected
with neoplasms have an irregular form determined by that of the
morbid growth. In infectious diseases the ulcers are round or
irregular, resulting from circumscribed sloughs. In most of the
infectious diseases the tendency appears to be to attack the intervals
between the folds of the mucosa, probably because the bacteria of
ulceration find a safer lodgement in such places. In the hog cholera
ulcers the older ulcers tend to the circular form with thick mass of
necrotic tissue in the form of plates or scales imbedded in the bottom
and projecting above the adjacent surface of the mucosa. As a rule
the microbes which in the different cases preside over the
necrobiosis are found in the depth and walls of the ulcers.
The symptoms are largely those of the diseases of which the ulcers
are a concomitant or result. There is usually diarrhœa, which is
generally black from extravasated blood, and may be marked by
fresher red bloody striæ. Sloughs of variable size are not at all
uncommon in the fæces. Hyperthermia is usually more intense than
in ordinary chronic enteritis, indicating the action on the heat
producing centres of the necrosing microbes and their toxins. In pigs
and dogs there may be vomiting of dark blood stained material or of
feculent matter. In the small animals it may be possible to feel
through the walls of the abdomen the thickening of the intestine at
and around the seat of any extensive ulcer.
Treatment. So far as this is not the treatment of the foreign bodies,
poisons, or specific fevers which cause the ulcers, it consists mainly
in careful dieting and the use of antiseptics such as subcarbonate of
bismuth, salol, salicylic acid, sodium salicylate or naphthol.
 DILATION OF THE INTESTINE.

Capacity adapted to ingesta, rich and nutritious food improves breeds, excessive
filling renders paretic, dilates; obstructions, impactions, strangulations, hernias,
invaginations, twisting, tumors, compressions, calculi, lowered innervation,
impaired circulation, verminous aneurism, peritonitis, persistent umbilical vesicle
in horse and ox, hernia of mucous through muscular coat, cæcal dilatation, colic,
rectal, with atresia ani, diseased end of cord, retained fæces. Symptoms: colics
after meals, abdominal and rectal exploration, softer than impaction. Treatment:
empty mechanically or by laxatives, demulcents, kneading, stimulants, nux
vomica, ergot, barium chloride, eserine, rich concentrated food, electricity,
enemata, laxatives.

It is a physiological law that the intestine developes in ratio with

the demands made upon it, provided these demands are not too
sudden and extreme. Thus the domestic pig and rabbit have
intestines at once longer and more capacious than those of the wild
varieties. The same is true of cattle and even of horses, heavy, rich
feeding, generation after generation, increases the capacity to take in
and utilize more, and to attain to a larger size and earlier maturity. In
such a case the walls of the intestinal canal retain their primary
thickness and strength and the whole change is in the direction of
physiological improvement for economical ends.
When, however, the retention or habitual accumulation of food in
the alimentary canal exceeds the self-adapting powers of its walls a
true pathological dilatation takes place, and attenuation or
thickening and paresis or actual paralysis of the walls ensues.
Whatever interferes with the normal active movement of the
ingesta predisposes to this. Thus partial obstructions of all kinds,
strictures, impactions, strangulations, hernias, invaginations,
twisting, tumors, compressions, calculi, contribute to the overfilling
of the bowel in front of them and to its more or less speedy
dilatation. Whatever weakens the muscular walls of the bowels or the
nerves presiding over these has a similar effect. Thus pressure on the
solar plexus or its branches from any cause, or degeneration of the
same, a tardy and imperfect circulation resulting from verminous
aneurism and thrombosis, and a circumscribed peritonitis extending
from the serous to the muscular coat of the bowel act in this way.
The persistence of the canal of the umbilical vesicle has been
repeatedly observed in solipeds, in the form of a pouch or dilatation
connected with the ileum three or four inches in front of the ileo-
cæcal valve. Rauscher records one of these of thirteen inches long
and having a capacity of seven quarts. These have been noticed in
cattle as well.
Another form of sacculation results from rupture of the muscular
coat through which the mucous forms a hernial sac in the peritoneal
cavity. On a small scale these sacs are not uncommon, the size of a
pea, a bean, or a marble, and very often containing larval or mature
worms. Degive records an enormous dilatation of the horse’s cæcum,
Peuch, one of the pelvic flexure of the colon having a capacity of forty
pounds, and Simonin one of the floating colon. Dilatations of the
rectum always take place in the new born affected with atresia ani.
Dilatation of the rectum into a cloaca is found in the horse and ox,
often connected with disease or injury of the terminal part of the
spinal cord, and is very common in dogs and cats in connection with
the compulsory retention of the fæces indoors. Pigs also present
instances of the kind.
The symptoms are in the main slight colics, with or without
tympany and recurring after each meal. In the small animals the
distended gut may often be recognized by palpation through the
abdominal walls, and in the larger animals by rectal exploration. The
distended viscus has not the firmness nor hardness of impaction or
calculus and is mainly recognizable by its bulk and form. When the
distension is in the rectum it may be easily reached and contents
dislodged with the effect of giving complete relief for the time being.
Treatment. Treatment is necessarily mainly palliative and consists
in the removal of abnormal accumulations. From the rectum this can
be done with the hand, or in the smaller animals with the finger. For
abnormal dilatations more anterior, purgatives and mucilaginous
injections are required, with kneading of the bowels through the
abdominal walls, or through the rectum in the larger animals, and
stimulation of the peristalsis by nux vomica, ergot, barium chloride
or eserine.
Having unloaded the dilated portion of any undue collection,
further accumulation should be guarded against by giving nutritious
food in small compass, and of a laxative nature, by stimulating
peristalsis by nux vomica or other nerve stimulant and by the daily
application of electricity. Enemata and laxatives should be employed
when necessary.
 STRICTURE OF THE INTESTINE.
From healing of ulcers, inflammation or infiltration, neoplasms, ring like or
sacculated, in small intestine in horse preceded by a dilatation, an effect of
verminous thrombosis; in cattle; in dog. Symptoms: Progressive, if in duodenum
can’t eat full meal, belches gas, has colics and tympany; in cattle tympany, unthrift;
in dog vomiting, tympany, colic, accumulations. Treatment: Gradual stretching by
bougies if within reach.
Strictures of the intestine are in the main the result of ulceration of
the intestinal walls which contract in healing, or inflammation, and
infiltration which leads to contraction in their organization into
tissue. Neoplasms of the walls (cancer, myxoma, lipoma, polypus,
melanosis, actinomycosis, tubercle) are additional causes of
constriction. If resulting from a lesion which completely encircled
the bowel there is an uniform constriction in the form of a circular
ring; if on the other hand it started from a longitudinal ulcer or
lesion the bowel is shortened on that side and puckered.
In solipeds strictures are most frequent in the small intestine, or
rectum. The pylorus is often affected. When on the small intestine
there is constantly a dilatation just in front of the obstruction. The
constricted portion is usually short, but as seen from outside of the
gut may be duplicated a number of times. Cadeac mentions
seventeen such strictures in the same animal, each preceded by a
dilatation. The individual stricture may be less than two inches in
length and so narrow as just to allow the passage of the index finger.
The walls of many times their natural thickness, are still further
thickened by an external layer of adipose tissue. It may be the seat of
a small abscess, or of a tumor. Internally the mucosa may show
ulcerations.
The stricture or strictures in solipeds often depend on the
disturbance of the circulation which results from verminous
thrombosis, the exudate into the intestinal walls, undergoing
organization, at once thickens and constricts the tube, and
determines as secondary result the dilatation in front of it.
Professor Mauri of Toulouse records the case of a horse with a
rectal stricture 4 inches from the anus, and a great dilatation in front.
The removal of the stricture, secured normal defecation, (whereas
before this the fæces had to be removed by hand) and the colics
entirely disappeared.
In cattle strictures have been found mainly at or near the pylorus,
less frequently in the rectum, and on one occasion (Revel) in
connection with a cancerous tumor, in the colon.
In the dog the pylorus is also the favorite seat of thickening and
stricture, yet it may occur in the small intestine, the rectum, or the
colon.
Symptoms. These are gradually advancing, as the stricture
approaches more and more nearly to a complete stenosis. If the
stricture is in the pylorus or duodenum, the patient can not eat a full
feed of grain without discomfort. He stops, hangs back on the halter,
plants the fore feet in front, arches the neck, drawing in the nose and
eructating gas. If he cannot eructate he is liable to show colics,
tympany, and the general symptoms of gaseous indigestion of the
stomach.
In cattle there is tympany, partial loss of appetite, tardy
rumination, and loss of condition.
Dogs show vomiting as a prominent symptom. When the stricture
is in the rectum there is a gradual lessening of the amount of fæces
passed at a time and an accumulation of feculent masses in advance
of the obstruction, recognizable by rectal exploration. When in the
terminal part of the small intestine or in the colon, a gradual
lessening of defecation, with tympanies and colics, culminating in
complete obstruction, may afford a suggestion of the trouble but no
means of certain diagnosis. In the smaller animals some additional
indications may be had from abdominal palpation.
Treatment is usually hopeless unless the stricture is in the
terminal portion of the rectum. In the latter case gradual dilatation
by the passage of the hand, the finger, or of bougies which are used
larger and larger, as they can be forced through with moderate
pressure may secure a sufficient dilatation. Forced dilatation, or even
careful incision at several different points of the circumference of the
stricture may give good results in certain cases.
 INTESTINAL INVAGINATION.
INTUSSUSCEPTION IN SOLIPEDS.
Definition. Seat: ileum into cæcum, rectum through sphincter, duodenum into
stomach, floating small intestine into itself, cæcum into colon. Lesions: blocking,
or tearing of mesentery, dark congestion, peritoneal adhesions, incarcerate gut,
necroses, sloughing of invagination. Symptoms: colics of obstruction, enteritis, and
septic infection, eructation, emesis, tenesmus, signs of sepsis and collapse, death in
seven hours or more, or recovery by disinvagination or sloughing. Diagnosis: by
rectal exploration or passing of slough. Treatment: oily laxatives, demulcents,
enemata, mechanical restoration of everted rectum, laparotomy.
Definition. The sliding of one portion of an intestine into a more
dilated one, as if a few inches of the leg of a stocking were drawn
within an adjoining portion which is continuous with it.
Seat. It is most commonly seen in the inversion of the small
intestine into itself or into the cæcum, or next to this the passage of
the rectum through the sphincter ani, to constitute eversion of the
rectum. It would appear to be possible at any part of the intestinal
canal in the horse, in which the bowels are more free to move than
they are in ruminants. Peuch records a case of invagination of the
duodenum into the stomach and Cadeac gives a woodcut of such a
case, which one would suppose the fixed position of the duodenum
would render impossible. It is conceivable that the jejunum could be
invaginated into the duodenum, and that this should have continued
until it extended into the stomach, but it is difficult to see how the
duodenum itself could have passed into the stomach without tearing
itself loose from its connections with the pancreas, liver and
transverse colon.
Schrœder, Serres and Lafosse describe cases in which the small
intestine was everted into the cæcum and thence through the colon
and rectum until it protruded from the anus.
The invagination of the floating small intestine into itself is
common at any point, and extensive and even repeated. Marcout
records a case in which 24 feet were invaginated, and Rey a case of
quadruple invagination at the same point.
 The invagination of the cæcum into the colon is frequent, the blind
end of the cæcum falling into the body of the same organ, and this
continuing to increase until it passes on into the colon, and even
carries a portion of the small intestine with it. This lesion is more
rare in solipeds because the cæcum has its blind end lowest and
gravitation opposes its invagination.
Resulting Lesions. In any case of invagination it must be noted
that it is not the intestine alone which slips into its fellow, but it
carries with it its attaching mesentery, which, dragging on one side of
the invaginated gut, shortens and puckers that and turns its opening
against the wall of the enclosing gut so as to block it, while the
opposite or free side passes on and tends to form convolutions. If the
outer and enveloping intestine is too small to allow of this, the
detaining mesentery of the invaginated mass must be torn or
stretched unduly and its circulation and innervation correspondingly
impaired. When the invagination occurs of one portion of the small
intestine into another of nearly equal size, the resulting mass is firm
like a stuffed sausage, and this enlargement and consolidation ends
abruptly at the point of visible entrance of the smaller contracted
portion, into the larger dilated one.
If recent, the invaginated mass is still easily disengaged from the
enveloping portion, though considerably congested and dark in color
in proportion to the duration of the lesion. When it has been longer
confined the incarcerated portion is the seat of extreme congestion,
and extravasation, and has a dark red or black color. The exudation
into its substance, which is especially abundant in the mucosa and
submucosa, produces a thickening which may virtually close the
lumen, and on the opposing peritoneal surfaces leads to adhesions
which prevent the extraction of the imprisoned mass. The
interruption of the circulation and the compression of the
invaginated mass, leads soon to necrosis and thus a specially
offensive odor is produced, and if the animal survives the whole may
be sloughed off and passed with the fæces, the ends of the
intussuscepted portion and of that receiving it meanwhile uniting
and becoming continuous with each other.
Symptoms. These are the violent colic of obstruction of the bowels,
soon complicated by those of enteritis and finally of septic infection.
 The animal looks at his flank, paws, kicks with his hind feet, lies
down, rolls, sits on his haunches, waves the head from side to side,
and sometimes eructates or even vomits. Straining may be violent,
with the passage of a few mucus-covered balls only, and rumbling
may continue for a time if the small intestines only are involved.
The partial subsidence of the acute pains, the presence of tremors,
dullness and stupor, the coldness of the ears and limbs, the small,
weak or imperceptible pulsations, the cold sweats, dilated pupils, and
loss of intelligence in the expression of the eye and countenance may
indicate gangrene, and bespeak an early death which may take place
in seven hours.
The subsidence of the acute symptoms with improvement in the
general appearance and partial recovery of appetite may indicate a
spontaneous reduction of the invagination, an issue which may
happily arrive in any case in the early stages, but especially in those
implicating the cæcum and colon.
An absolutely certain diagnosis is rarely possible, unless the lesion
is a protrusion of the rectum, or unless as the disease advances the
invaginated part is sloughed off and passed per anum.
Treatment. The failure to make a certain diagnosis usually stands
in the way of intelligent treatment. Oleaginous laxatives and
mucilaginous gruels are advised to keep the contents liquid, and
favor their passage through the narrowed lumen of the invaginated
bowel. In cases implicating the floating colon and rectum abundant
watery or mucilaginous injections may assist in restoring a bowel
which has not been too long displaced. In case of eversion of the
rectum, the hand should be inserted into the protruding gut and
carried on till it passes through the sphincter ani. Then, by pushing it
onward, the arm carries in a portion of the invaginated gut and
usually of the outer portion next to the anus as well, and this should
be assisted by the other free hand, and even if necessary by those of
an assistant, and whatever is passed through the sphincter should be
carefully retained, while the arm is withdrawn for a second
movement of the same kind, and this should be repeated until the
whole protruding mass has been replaced.
Invaginations situated more anteriorly and which can be correctly
diagnosed by rectal exploration or otherwise, will sometimes warrant
laparotomy, especially those of the cæcum into the colon, where
adhesion of the peritoneal surfaces is less common or longer delayed.
The patient should be given chloroform or ether, the abdominal walls
should be washed and treated with antiseptics, and the incision
made back of the sternum and to one side of the median line, and
large enough to admit the exploring hand. It has also been suggested
to introduce the hand through the inguinal ring, or behind the
posterior border of the internal oblique muscle.
 INTESTINAL INVAGINATION IN
RUMINANTS AND SWINE.
Double colon cannot be invaginated, floating small intestine, cæcum and floating
colon can. Causes. Lesions. Symptoms: Acute, violent, persistent colic, palpation of
right flank causes gurgling, rectal exploration, prostration, collapse. Duration 1 to 5
weeks. Treatment: Laxative, enemata, injections of sodium bicarbonate and
tartaric acid, laparotomy.
In these animals the double colon is rolled around itself between
the folds of the great mesentery the free border of which supports the
small intestine. The arrangement is as if a piece of rubber tubing
were first doubled upon itself, and the end of the loop were then
turned inward and the remainder wound round it as a centre. If this
were then sewed between two pieces of cloth, the stitches passing
between the different windings of the tube at all points, we would
have an arrangement fairly representing that of the double colon of
ruminants, and, for our present purpose, of swine as well. It must be
evident that no portion of a tube arranged in this way can slide into
another. It would also appear that the small intestine cannot become
invaginated to any extent into another portion or into the cæcum
without extreme stretching or laceration of the small portion of
mesentery left between it and the coils of the double colon above.
The anatomical arrangement is therefore opposed to the formation
of invaginations in a way that is not the case in the horse.
Yet invaginations are by no means unknown in these genera. The
small intestine can be invaginated into itself or into the cæcum. The
cæcum, which floats loose at the right side of the mesentery that
envelopes the double colon, can be invaginated into the colon, and
the floating colon can be invaginated into the double colon on the
one hand and into the rectum and through the anus on the other.
Invagination into the rectum, for eight inches, in a bull calf, of six
days old, is reported by Cartwright in the Veterinarian for 1829. In a
similar case of Youatt’s the intussuscepted portion sloughed off and
was discharged per anum.
 The causes are like those acting in solipeds, and which give rise to
excessive and irregular peristalsis. A drink of ice cold water,
indigestions and colics of various kinds, diarrhœa, chills, the
irritation caused by poisons or parasites, and the paresis and
dilatation of portions of the intestine into which the more active
portions can easily pass. Almost any irritation or congestion may
cause intussusception, and young animals in which peristalsis is
most energetic are the most liable.
Lesions. The intussusception is usually found in the ileum and to a
less extent in other parts of the small intestine, or involving the
cæcum and colon, or again the floating colon and rectum. The
successive conditions of congestion, exudation, adhesion,
obstruction, necrosis, sloughing, and repair by union of the
remaining ends are the same as in the horse.
Symptoms. There is acute, agonizing and dangerous colic in an
animal in which these troubles are usually comparatively slight and
transient. The animal looks at the right flank, paws or stamps with
fore feet as well as hind, lies down and rises often, strains to pass
manure but passes only mucus or a few small hard masses, if
anything. If pressure is made on the right side of the abdomen and
the hand suddenly withdrawn there is a significant gurgling and the
corresponding hind foot is lifted or moved forward or backward,
appetite and rumination are lost, the pulse becomes rapid and weak,
and the animal becomes prostrate, dull and stupid, often remaining
recumbent in spite of all efforts to raise him. Rectal exploration may
detect the firm tender mass in the seat of the invagination. The
disease may last from one week to five, according as the obstruction
is complete or partial. The usual termination is a fatal one, though a
certain number of spontaneous recoveries are met with.
Treatment. By a happy accident the peristalsis or anti-peristalsis
determined by a purgative will sometimes disengage the
intussuscepted bowel. Copious injections into the rectum may also
prove useful in case of intussusception of the floating colon or
rectum. Or the disengagement of carbon dioxide from the injection
of solutions of sodium bicarbonate and tartaric acid may be tried.
Laparotomy is however the most radical measure when a certain
diagnosis has been made and this is less dangerous in the cow than
in the horse in which peritonitis is so grave. Under antiseptic
precautions an incision is made in the right flank and the
invagination found and reduced. In case firm adhesions have already
taken place, and above all if the included gut is apparently
gangrenous, the latter may be exposed by breaking down the
connections at the side opposite to the attachment of the mesentery,
or where the adhesions are least firm, then cutting out and removing
the incarcerated gut and carefully closing the opening between the
ends by suture. The use of a sublimate or carbolic acid solution and
careful suturing and bandaging of the external wound with
carbolated cotton wool will often give a successful issue.