The Sandal is a light and portable substitute for a lost horseshoe. A shoe is fre-
quently lost in the field, while hunting or exercising with cavalry, and the conse-
quences are mortifying in the extreme, or destructive even of our object; unless it
happen that a Sandal to fit the horse be carried, either in the rider's pocket, or
within a wallet behind the flap of the saddle. It will also serve as a travelling shoe
for race-horses, and for horses coming up from grass or strawyard, saving their
feet from injury by so much nailing and unnailing. When a proper sized Sandal
is obtained, the first time the horse goes to the forge to be shod, the Sandal should
be sent with him in order to be fitted; an operation easily performed by the
farrier, by putting the Sandal into a vice, and either squeezing the heels nearer
. together or opening them wider apart according as required. The clips ought to
be made to closely embrace the heels of the hoof. The Sandal is immoveably and
firmly attached to the foot (without nails), by means of an endless elastic band,
in half a minute ; and is put on and off as readily, in a manner perfectly easy when
pointed out, though with difficulty explained in description. The horse's foot is
to be taken up and placed between the knees, and the Sandal placed upon it; the
thumbs are then to be pressed firmly down upon its heels, and with the two fore
fingers of each hand within the band, now lying across the Sandal, slip the inner
portion of it upon the heel of the foot; lastly, with the thumbs again stretch the
fore portion of band over the toe, and hook it.

Sandals are not intended, neither are they required, for the hind foot. The
same Sandal will answer for either fore feet, but different sizes of Sandal will be
needed for different horses.

It is not absolutely necessary for the horse to attend to have a Sandal fitted.
The vendor will be enabled to send the proper size by being furnished with one of
the animal's old fore shoes ; or even with the outline of his hoof (without the shoe)
taken upon paper, and enclosed in a letter. But a close fit at the heels, and a
band so tight that it no more than admits of being stretched over the foot, are
indispensables.

Sold by Oldaker, Saddler, 92, Park Street, Grosvenor Square; Townes,
Saddler, 141, Cheapside; and Bbennand, Instrument-maker, 217, High Holborn,
London; at the (reduced) price of 5s. 6d. Extra Bands, Is. 6d. Models of
Horses' Feet fitted with Sandals may be had of the Patentee. Price 10s. 6d.

In One Volume 8vo, cloth boards, price �1.
THE

ANATOMY OF THE HORSE,

KEDUCED TO A SYSTEMATIC FORM, AND EMBRACING NEW AND ENLARGED
VIEWS OF THE

STRUCTURE OF THE FOOT.
By WILLIAM PERCIVALL, M.R.C.S.,

Veterinary Surgeon, First Life Guards; Author of ' Veterinary Lectures.'
London : Longman and Co., Paternoster Row.

GLANDERS AND FARCY IN THE HORSE.

By WILLIAM PERCIVALL, M.R.C.S.,

Veterinary Surgeon, First Life Guards.

*** The previous volumes of the ' Hippopathology,' forming altogether ' A
Systematic Treatise on the Diseases of the Horse,' may be obtained of the
Publishers, or of any other Booksellers.

London :�Longman and Co., Paternoster Row.

ILLUSTRATED BY EIGHT OUTLINE ENGRAVINGS ON STEEL, OF HORSES

STANDING AND GOING : TO WHICH ARE APPENDED SOME

EXPERIMENTAL INQUIRIES INTO THE

EFFECTS OF MEDICINE ON HORSES.
By WILLIAM PERCIVALL, M.R.C.S.,

Veterinary Surgeon, First Life Guards; Author of ' Lameness in Horses'

" A very clever work, illustrated by some admirably executed engraved out-
lines of horses in different attitudes and states of progression."�Sporting
Magazine.

London :�Longman and Co., Paternoster Row.

<Pp^^"""»«^W»^l«W«iU»^«^WW^lP"Ji'..l<'l'P.iPIW>iWI«PlV J"I!S^W.W. ■'■.',TOJ^ll'm".^W«'J-»fJ.'.H,-'l W.'-.

JJh i'Si'iwrbv .ft''

THE DIGESTIVE ORGANS

INCLUDING THOSE OF HIS

URINARY AND GENERATIVE SYSTEMS.

BEING PART II, VOL. II, OF THE AUTHORS ' HIPPOPATHOLOGY.'

BY WILLIAM PERCLVALL, M.R.C.S.

licentiate of the Compajiy of Apothecaries; Veterinary Sufgeorlwi the First Life Guards;
Author of ' The Anatomy of the Eors4,% jre.

THOROU&HaerBEVIS^p, Wlifti-E.tTS^&i^E ADDITIONS.

LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS,

PATEENOSTEE KOW,
1855.

J. K. ADLABD, PRINTER, BAETHOLOMKW CLOSE.

BIBUOTHEEK UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT

Intboductoby Observations . . . . .

Table showing the ages at which horses are most subject to disease .
Table showing the particular months of the year at which horses are
most subject to certain diseases .....
The comparative fatality of different diseases . . .

Diseases or the Aib Passages

Laryngitis�Angina�Sore Throat

Malignant, or Putrid Sore Throat

Hemorrhage from the Nose

Diseases or the Lungs, Pleuba, and Diaphbagm

Causes of Pulmonary Disease

Disease of the Lungs

Hemorrhage from the Lungs

Spasm of the Diaphragm
Rupture of �

Diseases or the Heakt, Pericardium, and Great Blood-vessels

Hydrops Pericardii .

Rupture of the Pericardium

Disease of the Valves of the Heart .

Enlargement of the Heart

Ossification of the Heart .

Aneurism of the Aorta

Diseases or the Teeth, Pharynx, and (Esophagus
Dentition ......

Sharp and Projecting Teeth ....

Tumour of the Lip .....

� upon the Pace ....

Salivary Calculi .....

Stricture of the (Esophagus

Rupture of the � . . . .

SECTION X.
Diseases op the Stomach ....
Preliminary Observations ....
Gorged Stomach, usually denominated Stomach Staggers
Tympanitic Stomach .....

Itupture of the Stomach

Diseases or the Intestines .

Intestinal Concretions

Diaphragmatic Hernia

Diseases op the Pebitoneum .

Diseases op the Livek

Preliminary Observations

Complicated Hepatitis

Itupture of the Liver�Hepatirrlioea

. .. .......... ......

Biliary Calculi .....
Splenitis .....
Hypertrophy of the Spleen
Ossification of the � . . .

Rupture of the � ...

Carcinoraa-Melanosis ....

Diseases or the Urinary Organs
Nephritis .....

Condensation, Induration, and Soirrlius .
Melanosis .....

Immoderate Thirst�Dipsosis avens .
Albuminous Urine ....

Urinary Calculus ....

Cystic or Vesical Calculi

Urethral Calculus ....

Cystitis�Cystorrhoea ....

Ischury�Dysury�Strangury
Inversion of the Bladder

Diseases op the Organs or Generation

Preliminary Observations

Disease of the Scrotum ....

The Disease mistaken for Syphilis

Urethritis-�Gonorrhoea ....

Amputation of the Penis

Diseases of the Organs of Generation of the Pemale

Vaginitis and Leucorrhosa

Hysteritis or Metritis .

Diseases of the Ovaries

DISEASES OF THE TEETH, PHARYNX, AND
(ESOPHAGUS.

PROJECTING / ^TEE�-

TUMOR UPON THE FACE.

STRICTURE OF THE ffiSOPHAGUS.

RUPTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS.

By Dentition is meant the breeding and cutting of the
teeth. From a few months after birth until the fifth year
of his age, the horse may be said to be breeding and cutting
teeth. It is not, however, with the animal as with children,
who sicken, and even die, in tender infancy from the cutting
of their first teeth; on the contrary, his sucking teeth ap-
pear to cause him as little inconvenience as our permanent
set do ourselves, whereas the coming of his second teeth
occasionally causes him somewhat of the same kind of suffer-
ing and irritation which we so often observe among children.
There is, connected with dentition, another peculiarity in the

226 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

horse which we must not let slip our observation. Although
the period of teething, properly so called, may be said to be
terminated at the fifth year, yet we must recollect it has been
satisfactorily demonstrated, that, in him, there is a process
of growth going on in the teeth through the remainder of
life; so that, in fact, at no period can the animal be said to
be exempt from the influence of dentition. This accounts
for lampas appearing in old as well as young horses, and
furnishes my mind with strong proof, that the tumidity of
the bars of the mouth is dependent upon operations going
on in the teeth, and upon that cause alone.

There was a time when, I must confess, I treated the
subject of dentition so lightly as to think that horses never
suffered or became disordered from such a cause. Experience,
however, has altered my opinion. I can now, in practice,
frequently discover young horses with disorder or febrile
irritation upon them, the production or continuation of
which I hesitate not to ascribe to teething; and I find these
views borne out by the relief obtained by the increased atten-
tion I am in the habit of giving to this assumed cause in
my treatment. In illustration of this, I will here relate a
case which occurred to me many years ago; the very one,
in fact, which proved the occasion of my looking afterwards
more closely into dentition.

I was requested to give my opinion concerning a horse,
then in his fifth year, who had fed so sparingly for the last
fortnight, and so rapidly declined in condition in conse-
quence, that his owner, a veterinary surgeon, was under no
light apprehensions about his life. He had himself examined
his mouth, without having discovered any defect or disease;
though another veterinary surgeon was of opinion, that the
difficulty or inability manifested in mastication, and the
consequent cudding, arose from preternatural bluntness of the
surfaces of the molar teeth, which were, in consequence,
filed, but without beneficial result. It was after this that
I saw the horse; and I confess I was, at my first examina-
tion, quite as much at a loss to offer any satisfactory interpre-
tation as others had been. While meditating, however, after

my inspection, on the apparently extraordinary nature of the
case, it struck me that I had not seen the tusks, I went back
into the stable, and discovered two little tumours, red and
hard, in the situation of the inferior tusks, which, when
pressed, gave the animal insufferable pain. I instantly took
out my pocket-knife, and made crucial incisions through
them both, down to the coming teeth, from which moment
the horse recovered his appetite, and by degrees his wonted
condition.

The above case might likewise be quoted in illustration
of another fact connected with this subject, which is, that
the cutting of the tusks�which may be likened to the eye-
teeth of.children�costs the constitution more derangement
than the cutting of all the other teeth put together; on
which account, no doubt, it is that the period from the fourth
to the fifth year proves so critical a one with the domiciled
horse. Any disease, pulmonary in particular, setting in at
this interval,is doubly dangerous, from its being augmented or
kept up by the existing irritation of teething : in fact, teeth-
ing is one auxiliary cause of the known fatality among horses
at this period of their lifetime.

Professor Galle, of Toulouse, who wrote, in 1839, 'A
Treatise on the Pathology of the Ox/ says : " The cutting
of the teeth in the ox, as well as in the horse, is attended
by loss of appetite, and redness and heat of mouth ; the head
hangs down; the eyes weep; and sometimes there is cough,
coryza, and diarrhoea." " I have seen persons, careless or
deficient in medical tact, bleed and physic an ox, supposing
that they were combating bronchitis or gastro-enteritis; and,
after two or three days, the proprietor or the cowherd has
found one or two molar teeth in the manger."

Reasoning, en philosophe, on the subject, with a view of
showing in what manner teething is necessarily productive
of the consequences ascribed to it, D'Arboval tells us to ob-
serve how the vital energy becomes augmented about the
head, and upon the mucous surfaces in particular. "A sort
of local fever originates in the alveolar cavities, running high
or low according to the resistance the teeth encounter from

228 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

the hardness of the jaws, or their own disproportioned size
and solidity. The gums become stretched from the pressure
of the teeth against them; they dilate, sometimes split; at
the same time they are red, painful, and hot, even to a sense
of burning, and they spread. Internally, the roots of the
teeth, from shooting downwards, compress the dental nerves,
and painfully drag the periosteal linings of the alveolar
cavities. These combined causes will sufficiently account
for the local irritation and suffering accompanying teething,
and enable us to explain many morbid phenomena we find
appearing in horses about this�from various circumstances
�the most critical period of their lives."¹

The Effects of Dentition upon the constitution may be
said to breed, or add to the intensity of, excitation, causing
fever, catarrhal disorder, cough, glandular swellings, ophthal-
mic irritation, cutaneous eruption, derangement of the bowels,
urinary disturbance, loss of appetite and consequent emacia-
tion. My respected predecessor, the late Mr. Bloxam, has
left behind him, in his Registry of Sick, several such entries
as "fever from dentition"�"suffering from dentition:" in
my mind, evidence sufficient to show that his opinions on
this subject were much the same as thosel am now endeavour-
ing to inculcate and, let me add, they were the result of
very long experience, and most patient and attentive ob-
servation. Excessive or long-continued local irritation and
suffering induces a habit of nervousness and susceptibility,
rendering the body doubly prone to the operation of
morbific agents, and" augmenting the violence of the
malady when once disease has set in. For this reason I,
for my own part, invariably make it my rule, in practice,
when young horses are brought to me sick or unwell, to
inspect their mouths, and, in particular, to notice the tusks,
which, should they be prominent and pushing against the
gums, I let through by making crucial incisions over their
summits : at the same time, I extract any of the sucking
teeth that may appear to be obstructing the growth of the
set to come. In this way, I feel assured, I have seen
' See Hurtrel d'Arboval's ' Dictionnaire,' article ' Dentition.'

catarrhal and bronchial inflammations abated, coughs re-
lieved, lymphatic and other glandular tumours about the
head reduced, cutaneous eruptions got rid of, deranged
bowels restored to order, appetite returned, lost condition
repaired. I am quite sure, too little attention has been
paid to the teeth in the medical treatment of young horses;
and I would counsel those who have such charges by no
means to disregard this remark, trifling as it may appear.

Dr. Marshall Hall says : " There is no practical fact of
the truth and value of which I am more satisfied than that
of the effect and efficacy of scarification of the gums of
infants, and not in infants only, but in children. But it is
to the base of the gums, not to their apex merely, that the
scarification should be applied. The most marked case in
which I have observed the instant good effect of scarification
was one in which all the teeth had pierced the gums. 1
have been accused of unnecessarily frequently (daily) scari-
fying the gums; to which my answer is, 'Better scarify
the gums unnecessarily a hundred times, than allow the
accession of one fit or convulsion.' And it is not merely
the prominent tense gum over the edges of the teeth that
should be divided; the gums, or rather the blood-vessels
immediately over the very nerves of the teeth, should be
scarified and divided as you would divide the vessels of the
conjunctiva in inflammation of that membrane. And
repeat daily ; in urgent cases twice a day.¹

The pathognomonic symptoms calling our attention,
whether it be in young or old horses, if not exactly to the
teeth themselves, to the mouth in general, are large dis-
charges of saliva from the mouth, with continual slobbering;
cudding of the food; difficulty of mastication or deglutition,
or of both; stench of buccal secretion, perhaps of the
breath as well. Symptoms such as these manifesting them-
selves ought to lead us without delay to a thorough exami-
nation of the horse's mouth.

¹ Vide Marshal Hall's ' New Memoir of the Nervous System.'

230 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

With the subject of dentition is closely allied another one
to which those knowing in horse matters, but unread in
medical philosophy, attach great importance, yclept "lampas."
According to D'Arboval, the word is of French origin : it is
a " terme de manege" which has found its way into veterinary
medicine from the circumstance of its having been, figura-
tively or burlesquely, used to signify the palate or inside of
the mouth. What we, now-a-days. understand by lampas,
is, an unnatural prominence or tumidity of the cartilaginous
bars forming the roof of the mouth. These bars, naturally,
are pale coloured, and arched in figure; whereas, in a mouth
affected with lampas, they are red and tumid, lose their cir-
cumfiexure, and appear bulging, descending upon a level
with the surfaces of the upper nippers, and in some cases
even below them. This apparent augmentation of substance
is, no doubt, ascribable to congestion of blood; but not to
that alone, for I believe in many cases there will be found to
be some serous and albuminous infiltration into the cellular
membrane attaching the bars to the hard palate : which will
account for the length of time they are known sometimes to
continue, as well as for the little relief, in regard to their
diminution, which in such cases attends lancing of the gums.
Although in young horses it is, I believe, admitted by all
horse people, that lampas is occasioned by the cutting of the
teeth, yet, in old horses, there are those who ascribe their
production to other causes, and imagine they have a good
deal to do with the animal's state of health, or rather with
his feeding. That they may in some cases be the occasion
of tenderness in mastication, I do not deny; at the same time
I think I may safely affirm, that, in nine times out of ten,
the cause of loss of appetite will be found elsewhere. The
reason why lampas appear in aged horses, is, in my opinion,
as I before stated, on account of the continuance of the
process of growth, demonstrated to be going on through life,
in the teeth, with the nature and laws of which we are, in

our present state of knowledge, too little acquainted to
pretend to say why the lampas should exist in one horse and
not in another, or why it should only at times appear in the
same horse.

Are Lampas Disease ?�The complaints, heavy and
grievous, which are daily reaching our ears, are enough to
persuade us they are : every groom having an unthriviug
horse, or one that does not feed, is sure to search for
lampas; and, should he find any, in his mind the cause of
failure is detected, and the remedy obvious�"burning
them out." Many a poor wight of a horse, even while
suffering from some real constitutional malady, has been
subjected to this torturing operation, with a view of demon-
strating the sagacity of the groom, and thereby has got
added to his other ailments, a foul, sloughy, carious sore
upon the roof of his mouth. This may be said to be the
fruits of

" Burning for the Lampas."�Supposing that their ex-
istence be owing to the teeth, do not the teeth require re-
moval, and not the bars of the mouth ? In cutting or
burning away the lampas we are mistaking the effect for
the cause. If it be contended that lampas do not owe their
production to the irritation of teething, then, I should like
to be informed what is the origin of them; and, let what
will give rise to them, I do not imagine there is any vete-
rinarian hardy enough to contend that the cause resides in
the palate, or becomes removed by the actual cautery !
Those who are entering private practice, and find them-
selves compelled, at times, to belie their consciences by the
performance of unnecessary operations to please their em-
ployers, may be told, that burning out lampas is, after all,
preferable to lancing or cutting the bars; for, unless the
palatine artery be wounded, very little blood is obtained by
stabbing the mouth ; and the wounding of this vessel, which
will certainly take place should the punctures be made
along the sides of the palate, or extend forward beyond the
fourth bar from the front teeth, is not always a very safe
proceeding, I remember a case of the kind in which it be-

MW>��»�i »»' � '

232 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

came necessary to bind compresses of tow firmly upon the
bleeding parts; which could be effected only by carrying a
broad tape around the jaw between the tusks and corner
incisors, and confining it there by tying its two ends in a
knot upon the front of the gum, underneath the upper lip.
After a couple of hours the compress was removed, and
the hemorrhage proved to have been permanently arrested.
Had the operation of torsion been known to me, I might,
I think, have succeeded in stanching the hemorrhage with
less trouble and in less time.

The Operation of Bubning, if it must be performed,
appears best done in the old farriers' mode of proceeding.
An iron, shaped as under,

is heated to redness, and with its edge, which ought to be
sharp, a portion of the substance of the bars, about the size
of a crown piece, from tbe middle aud most protuberant
part, is sliced off; care being taken that the instrument
does not penetrate deep enough to sear the bone. This at
once gets rid of the assumed evil, and is altogether the pre-
ferable operation; nor will it, performed in this partial and
cautious manner, be productive of any very serious mischief.

SHAKP AND PROJECTING TEETH.

Among the annoyances and hinderances the horse expe-
riences to his eating, may be classed a sharpened and over-
grown state of the molar teeth or grinders. Some irregular
action in the jaws occasions a slanting wear of their grind-
ing surfaces, and the consequence, in the course of time, is
the projection, to a considerable extent, of the inner of the
lateral edges of those teeth beyond the outer, and the
consequent conversion of their grinding surfaces, from an as-
perous level into an inclined plane, of greater or less extent
according to the length of time the change has been going

SHAKP AND PROJECTING TEETH. 233

on. It would appear that this irregular action is the result
of some original malformation of the jaws, whereby the
teeth have a wrong direction given to them, or, at least, do
not come into that complete apposition which is so essential
to their due masticatory operation. The wear, instead of
being level and uniform, takes place all on one side; while
the opposite, unworn side continuing to grow, the conse-
quence, in process of time, is a production at once most
remarkable and unnatural: of this Mr. Henderson, V.S.,
Park Lane, London, has in his museum a very beautiful
and extraordinary specimen.

Not only are the teeth, when they have acquired this
unnatural shape, in a measure unfitted for the purposes of
mastication, but are, by their projections, apt to excoriate
and lacerate the sides of the cheeks or of the tongue,¹ de-
pending upon which jaw they are situated in, and whether
their sharpened edges are slanting inwards or outwards.
What commonly leads to the discovery of this condition of
the teeth is, the horse being observed to cud his hay: either
he puts the cud out of his mouth after masticating it im-
perfectly, or else he retains and collects it between his
cheeks and grinders, where it exhibits externally the ap-
pearance of a swelling a little above the angle of the mouth.
At times a flow of saliva accompanies the cudding. And
in consequence of much of his aliment being thus lost to
him, the animal perceivably falls away in condition.

The Remedy for sharp Grinders is the tooth-rasp. I
have in all the cases of this description which have occurred
to myself used this instrument with success, without having
had occasion for anything beyond it. The French prefer
breaking off the salient portions of the teeth by means of a
hammer and chisel, the mouth being kept open the while
with a gag, or a ball-iron; in regard to which proceeding I
I can only repeat, I never myself found anything necessary
beyond the tooth-rasp.

Projecting Teeth.�When once a tooth, whether it be

' These excoriations, and the ulcers they occasionally give rise to, are noticed
in Vol. I.

234 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

au incisor or a molar, has lost its opponent, and thereby
becomes deprived of all counter-pressure, it shoots beyond
its fellows in the same jaw; and is apt to grow to such a
length a3 not only to interrupt mastication, but even impede
the closure of the jaws. Mr. H. Surmon relates�in vol. ii
of ' The Veterinarian '�a very instructive case of this
description.

"A neighbour of his possessed a horse that had continued
to lose his appetite and condition for some weeks. The first
time Mr. Surmon examined the mouth he perceived nothing
extraordinary. The horse, emaciated to a skeleton, was to be
destroyed. Mr. Surmon examined his mouth ouce more, and,
with a balling-iron keeping it open, he introduced his hand,
and discovered two lower teeth, one on each side, which had
outgrown the others to that extent that they were actually
pressing against the roof of the mouth. Mr. Surmon made
attempts to extract them with a key, such as is used by sur-
geons ; but these proved fruitless. He
jffM afterwards contrived an instrument,
ilr (which is here represented) with which

f he perfectly succeeded. In using it, he

^ passed the forked end into the mouth,

*^^^^T^ and fixed the tooth to be extracted

^"^^^ within the fork. The handle�a most

powerful lever�being then turned on
its axis, the tooth became forced out with the greatest ease.
The horse Mr. Surmon operated on, began after the operation
to feed again, and rapidly recovered his health and strength,
and went to work as well as ever.

This instrument, however, after all, amounts in operation
to nothing beyond the ordinary tooth-key, upon a magnified
scale, and is in many respects not so efficient, in conse-
cpjence of its wanting the adjusting and grasping powers of
the key. Mr. Cherry, the Principal Veterinary Surgeon to
the Cavalry, is in the habit of using a key of such large
dimensions that the handle is intended to be turned by both
hands of the operator, thus affording him a lever-extractor
of highly augmented power.

SHARP AND PROJECTING TEETH.

Of late years dental human surgery has undergone con-
siderable improvement. The old tooth-key is laid aside to
make room for retraction-forceps, so constructed that, once
the body of the tooth, close up to its neck, firmly clutched
by them, a strong pull, or rather draw, extracts the tooth.
Not in human surgery alone, however, but in veterinary as
well, I am happy to be able to add, has this department of
our art received important melioration. In the year 1849,
M. Gowing, V.S., London, read a paper before the Vete-
rinary Medical Association, introducing to their notice a set
of tooth instruments of his own construction, which he, as
well as many other veterinarians, had at times experienced
great lack of in practice. His own trials of them had quite
confirmed his expectations. They consist of a pair of giant for-
ceps (seefrontispiece, fig. 1), with serrated beaks; the extreme
end of one of the handles of which is furnished with an eye,
while that of the other has a ferrule screw. A shaft, to
operate as a lever, runs through the eye, and screws into
the ferrule screw, a contrivance which renders it so powerful
an instrument, as to require soundness of tooth, and care
on the part of the operator, lest in the operation the tooth, or
even jaw, become fractured. For the purpose of cutting
down teeth which have grown out beyond the level of the
others (from want of pressure from opposing teeth), Mr.
Gowing has invented a dental sliding chisel (fig. 2). In its
use a balling-iron and a twitch are required. And when
the instrument is adjusted so that the active chisel is brought
into contact with the anterior part of the tooth, a sharp blow
is to be given to it, which is to be repeated, if required, once
or even twice. Sometimes it will be necessary to cast the
animal for examination and operation, though standing is to
be preferred. But, as all the irregularities met with in the
teeth cannot be overcome with the same instrument, Mr.
Gowing has made another, consisting of a solid or entire
piece of steel. This is the lateral repeller (fig. 3). Its
use is to prevent the concussion of the jaw, while the
operator with a chisel strikes off any projecting angle of tooth.
The chisel Mr. Gowing has .adopted is the guarded chisel

236 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

(fig. 4). Another instrument bearing some resemblance to
the lateral, is the posterior repeller, whose utility is
principally for the back teeth. With this instrument, where
necrosis of the tooth has taken place, traction, to a certain
degree, may be made, in consequence of its being turned down
or necked at the end. Another instrument required is a
common chisel, somewhat longer and stronger than the one
in ordinary use. Also, another pair of forceps, smaller than
the giant ones, without the cross-lever, but billed or notched
at their points. (Fig. 7), is a gum lancet of considerable
length, to " enable one to scarify gums without reaching
one's hand through the balling-iron." The only alteration
Mr. Gowing has made in the tooth-rasp (fig. 8), is the
addition of a shifting handle, of some length, " whereby
greater power is gained, besides the advantage of being able
to add a new rasp, or any other instrument, to it, that the
veterinary surgeon may deem expedient." This imperfect
sketch of the "proper dental instruments," will not
serve for more than an inducement to the man who is in
earnest in preparing himself in practice against all con-
tingencies, to furnish himself with a case of such instruments,
and make himself perfect master of their use, by perusing
Mr. Gowing's excellent practical paper, which he will find
in ' The Veterinarian/ vol. xxiv, pp. 630-40.

Disease of the teeth is rare in the horse. Mr. Gowing
has found the disease mostly occurring in cart and other
under-bred horses, which he suggests may arise, in part,
from the coarser food given to them. Another cause is, as
the horse advances in years, the interstices arising between
their molar teeth, into which the food gets and lodges. And
Mr. Gowing believes it to be a fact, " that disease begins
either at the neck or in the fang of the tooth in our patients,
and not usually at the crown." " It is a common practice
with carters to sprinkle the pi'ovcndcr with sulphuric acid,
and we all well know the action of acids on the teeth."

" The symptoms that would indicate disease of the teeth
to be present, would be�imperfect mastication, in con-
sequence of which the stomach would have more to do, and,
from the food being longer retained within that viscus, its
appropriative powers would be enfeebled and deranged,
which would speedily be shown by portions of the aliment
passing through the digestive track entire. Associated with
this would sometimes be a staring coat, with a harsh and
unthrifty appearance of the animal; and what is designated
hide-bound might also be present, accompanied with more or
less emaciation, and a low febrile appearance of the system.
Besides all this, in some instances we shall have a portion of
the corn, in a half-masticated state, from time to time thrown
out of the mouth into the manger, mixed with a quantity of
saliva; also, the animal, if watched narrowly, would be
observed suffering much pain during mastication, and sud-
denly stop and rest for a time, and then begin again to eat.
Fcetor, likewise, when the mouth is examined, will be found
present to a greater or lesser extent. Who has witnessed
these symptoms, and seen the horse hanging his head by
the side of the manger, with saliva dribbling from his mouth,
cannot hesitate for a moment to acknowledge that the poor
brute is suffering pain; which, if we were to call tooth-ache,
would not be believed by our employers."¹

There are instances on record of carious teeth being dis-
covered, and of their being productive of such consequences
as have led, through error, to a fatal termination. The
following relation ought to operate on our minds as a warning
in pronouncing judgment in cases of glanders, or at least in
such as assume the semblance of glanders:�

A horse, the property of government, became a patient of
Mr. Cherry's, on account of a copious defluxion of fetid,
discoloured, purulent matter from the near nostril, unaccom-

¹ Gowiug's ' Essay on the Disease of the Teeth of the Horse,' 'Veterinarian,'
vol. xxiv.

238 DISEASES OP THE TEETH, ETC.

panied either by submaxillary tumefaction or by ulceration of
the Schneiderian membrane. For two or three months the
case was treated for glanders; but, no amendment appearing,
a consultation was deemed necessary, the result of which was,
the horse was shot. On examination of the head, the third
molar tooth proved to be carious; one third of its fang being
already consumed, and the remainder rotten. The formation
of an abscess within its socket had rendered the tooth loose,
and the matter flowing therefrom had established a passage
into the contiguous chamber of the nose. The antrum, also,
was in part obstructed by the deposition of osseous matter.
This is a case which, but for the inquisitiveness of Mr. Cherry,
would have indiscriminately merged into that heterogeneous
class of diseases passing under the appellation of chronic
glanders.

My father's museum contained several preparations of
carious teeth. One was that of a molar tooth, whose interior
was black and rugged, from being eroded by ulceration, and
whose fangs had from the same cause mouldered away. Two
others presented brittle exostoses upon their sides, forming
spacious cavities within, and communicating with the con-
tiguous grinders. One of them exhibited a perforation
through which pus appeared to have issued. They seemed
both to have been cases which had originated in internal
injury.

The rarity of such occurrences disinclines one to seek for
them; and, especially, since we are not in possession of any
sure indications of their existence. Cudding the food, fetid
breath and saliva, either with or without any purulent issue
from the nose, might lead to an examination of the mouth,
and the discoloration of a tooth would prompt us to ascer-
tain whether it were loose or not, and, if loose, to extract it:
further than this I am not prepared to advise.

By this appellation horse-people understand what dog-
fanciers call "overhung;" i.e., a mouth so formed�or
rather so malformed�that the upper jaw overshoots or pro-

TUMOR OF THE LIP. 239

jects considerably beyond the lower; so much so, that the
inferior incisor teeth, instead of meeting their opponents,
come in contact, when the mouth is shut, with the bars of the
palate; while the teeth of the superior jaw have no opposing
surface whatever, unless the lower lip can be so regarded.
This deformity is not a very common occurrence; nor is it
one altogether so objectionable, since the horse has the power
of gathering up his hay and corn with his lips, although the
process (as well as the retention of the food while it is being
transferred to the grinders) is but imperfectly performed, as
is seen by the animal, while feeding, scattering and wasting
part of his corn, and slobbering at the same time. In
grazing, the parrot mouth must be greatly more disadvan-
tageous : much difficulty must of necessity be experienced in
nipping off the grass; and this seems to me to be the chief
objection to the purchase of such a horse : at least, this
formed the ground of objection, I remember, of a recruit
horse with a parrot-mouth which was offered to the 1st
Life Guards.

Now and then horses are brought to us with swollen lips,
or rather lower lip, for I do not remember much about the
upper. There grows a swelling of one side of it, confined to
that side, and more apparent when the lip comes to be
everted than before. It has a solid, firm feel, is perhaps
altogether about the size of a pigeon's egg, and is hot, and
gives pain when squeezed. I have on no occasion been able
to trace any connection between the tumor and the
reception of injury of any kind, from the bit, though I have
known it to arise from a bite or sting : otherwise, I have been
forced to regard its origin as spontaneous. I have ordered fo-
mentation and frequent steaming of the muzzle, and cathartic
medicine. In the course of the second or third day, how-
ever, it has generally happened, that the tumour has burst
inwardly, and discharged a thin ill-looking purulent matter,
composed probably of pus and the secretion of the lip; after

240 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

which, by well probing daily, and injections of a solution of
alum or borax, the tumour has dispersed, and the opening
healed up.

TUMOR UPON THE FACE.

Those who are much among young horses will have occa-
sionally observed osseous swellings arising upon the side of
the face, midway between the eye and angle of the mouth.
They grow from the superior maxillary bones, have a rounded
form, and are broadish at their bases, with hardly any per-
ceptible heat of surface, and very little tenderness on pressure.
Sometimes one appears; oftener, I believe, there exist a
pair. What their origin may be, I know not, unless they be
the effects of blows. In composition they are evidently
osseous, or osseo-cartilaginous: in fact, they are veritable
exostoses. They are nowise hurtful or injurious; but they
extremely disfigure the countenance of the animal: they give
him a sour, ill-tempered look, and on this account are often
sought to be got rid of.

A three-year old horse came to my regiment, out of the
dealer's hands, with a tumour of this description upon the
off side of his face. Not liking the appearance of it, the
colonel was desirous I should get rid of it. I blistered it
repeatedly. I next tried the effects of an iodine ointment
upon it: all to very little purpose however. It was thought
to have diminished; but this, in truth, was very little. I
had a notion that stripping it of its periosteal covering, and
leaving it bare, might cause it to exfoliate away : but this
seemed to be attended with some danger of sloughing
open the maxillary sinus; and therefore the project was
abandoned.

Mr. Charles Percivall, V.S. Royal Artillery, has sent me
the following account of the same disease :�

A four-year-old gelding came into the Horse Infirmary
at Woolwich, with a tumour upon the maxillary bone of the
off side, followed, some days after, by enlargement of the
submaxillary glands, and discharge from the nose on the same

SALIVARY CALCULI. 241

side. The swelling was painful on pressure, and my first
idea of its nature was, that it had proceeded from a blow.
Cold applications were made use of; ultimately, it was blis-
tered. This caused it to suppurate and discharge a glairy
ill-conditioned sort of matter. At the expiration of three
weeks, the near side of the face commenced swelling in the
same manner, which convinced me I was wrong in ima-
gining the other tumor was caused by injury. The same
treatment was pursued; but this did not suppurate. I then
used the iodine ointment, which appeared to diminish it.
The tumour upon the off side became fistulous, continually
issuing the glairy matter, as at first, and giving evident
signs that the bone within was in an unsound�most likely
carious�condition.

British veterinary practice appears to have been eminently
unproductive of cases of this description. Were it not for
the recorded observations of continental veterinarians, we
should have felt at a loss in what way to have supplied this
defect in our nosology.

Prom D'Arboval�our principal source of information�
we learn that calculi have been discovered within most of
the salivary glands, but are more commonly found within
their ducts, and particularly within the parotid duct. They
have a whitish aspect, take the form of the canal, and are
extremely hard and weighty, tasteless and odourless, and
have an oat or small pebble, which has got into the duct
through the mouth, for a nucleus. When lodged in that
part of the duct which is but skin-deep, the calculus is
perfectly obvious; but when sticking just within the orifice
of the canal, unless of considerable volume, it is difficult
of detection. In this situation, when projecting, the calculus
will sometimes occasion excoriation of the buccal membrane,
and so far will render mastication sore and painful, besides
more or less obstructing the efflux of saliva; and it may
create some sort of noise during the motions of the
II. 16

242 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

jaws by gritting against the teeth: these constituting the
evils arising from its presence. In general, the growth of
this kind of calculus is extremely slow; so that it is some
considerable time before such effects are produced. When
it has attained sufficient magnitude to cause obstruction, the
portion of duct between it and the gland becomes swollen
from the accumulation of saliva. According to the analysis
of Thenard, these calculi are composed of calcareous phosphate
in combination with some little carbonate of lime.

Treatment.�We possess no means of dissolving these
calculi; but we can extract them, and in some cases with-
out cutting into the duct, which is an operation now
and then succeeded by a troublesome fistula. When the
stone proves to be at the buccal orifice of the canal, and
the molar teeth present the only obstacle to its escape, it
will often be sufficient to extend the cheek and give it a
good shake or two with the hand to dislodge it. Should
the calculus appear to be strangulated within the canal, we
must divide the stricture first. This may be done by fixing
the mouth wide open with a ball-iron, and introducing a
bistoury tied to a stick, to serve as a long handle, while the
Other hand is engaged in drawing the tongue out of the
way. Should the stone not fall out after the division of the
stricture, it may be seized with forceps and extracted. A
mash or liquid diet ought to follow the operation.

Even when not at the orifice, but felt externally some
way within the canal under the skin, should the calculus not
be large, some dexterous manipulation might force it on-
ward into the mouth. As it but seldom happens, however,
that our attention is drawn to it before its bulk is such as
to preclude the possibility of stirring it, we are in general
necessitated to incise the duct in order to extract it. And in
making our incision, we are to do it cautiously, in the
direction of the canal, from one extremity to the other of
the tumor; and, as soon as we have extracted the calculus,
either with our fingers or forceps, take special care to ap-
proximate the lips of the wound and retain them in appo-
sition by some adhesive plaster, lest we incur the consequences

STRICTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 243

of a fistulous duct, which sometimes amounts to an evil as
great as, or even greater than, the calculus itself had proved.
In some cases sutures may be found requisite. A compress
will generally with advantage be applied upon the portion
of duct intervening between its gland and the wound. A
great consideration in the treatment is, to keep the jaws as
quiet as possible; and therefore the horse ought to be sup-
ported for some days upon liquid aliment. Although it is
right to take such precautions, many of these wounds heal
and do well with comparatively little care. M. Vieillard
extracted salivary calculi from three troop-horses without
leaving any fistula. And M. Girard has seen the gland
itself cut into for the purpose of evacuating a salivary
abscess, and afterwards complete cicatrization ensue.

This account is followed by the relation of several cases
illustrative of what has been said, whose insertion here
would prove of little or no service to us.

STRICTURE OF THE OESOPHAGUS.

By stricture is meant, a diminished or contracted state of
some tube or duct of the body. In man, we find strictures
occurring in all the mucous canals�-oesophagus, intestines,
urethra, vagina: in the horse they have hitherto been dis-
covered in no others, I believe, but the oesophagus and
intestines. A stricture is either spasmodic or organic: that
is, the muscular or contractile power of the tube only is at
fault, and that is functional; or else, its lining membrane
is thickened, and perhaps altered in texture as well. The
stricture I am going to treat on will be found to be of the
organic kind. Its occurrence is rare; at least I argue so,
from having myself come to the knowledge of but four
instances of it. A case of it in a cow is related in ' The Vete-
rinarian' for June, 1843.

The Symptoms of a strictured oesophagus, so far as I have
been enabled to note them, are, at first, a gradual falling off
in strength and spirits and appetite, with some attendant
febrile disorder; cudding not only hay, but corn likewise,

244 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

and ejecting both, either through the nose as well as mouth,
or through the mouth alone, after they have been thoroughly
masticated and mingled with saliva, and rendered, in fact,
fit to be swallowed. In some cases the disgorged cud does
not seem to have entered the oesophagus at all: the animal,
knowing he cannot swallow, appears not to attempt it. In
other cases, the cud descends as low down into the gullet
as the seat of stricture, and there lodges until disgorged
again, causing distension of the tube at that part, and, in
time, the formation of a considerable dilatation or sac.
Now that the horse disgorges the greater part or whole of
the solid food he consumes, the appetite, from having been
indifferent, becomes painfully keen : no sooner is a fresh
supply of provender set before the animal than he seizes and
devours it for a time with avidity ; but, alas ! this proves in
the end only the means of augmenting his suffering; for,
as soon as he has swallowed it, or a few minutes or more
afterwards, he discovers his inability, or rather the pain and
difficulty he is about to experience in further deglutition ; and
consequently prefers returning most, if not all, of what he
has been chewing, into his manger. At this period, he be-
comes, in some instances, restless and agitated, breathes hard
and quick, and evinces spasmodic action commencing in the
tube by striking his belly, pawing, lying down and rising,
&c, so long at least as the inverted action is going on.
Deprived of his aliment, the animal daily continues to lose
flesh, and with it his strength and spirits, everything around
appearing after a time indifferent to him, save his fresh
feeds, which he plucks up to eat with renewed vigour, only,
however, to encounter renewed disappointment, and perhaps
paroxysms of annoyance and agitation, and pain as well.
There exists in general no unwillingness nor impediment to
his swallowing his water; nor are balls even, during the
early stages of the disease, rejected. His skin, after a time,
becomes hide-bound; his coat harsh and dry and scurfy.
Early in the complaint, the bowels are commonly much
constipated, and require repeated aperients to keep them
soluble : later, a diarrhoea is apt to supervene. A slow fever

STRICTURE OP THE (ESOPHAGUS. 245

accompanies these symptoms: the pulse commonly ranging
between 50 and 60. The horse lies down sometimes by day
as well as by night. Emaciation proceeds, until, from de-
bility and inanition, the exhausted animal sinks to rise no
more.

The seat of Stricture varies. In two cases which
occurred in my own practice, it proved to be the place where
the oesophagus enters the stomach�in the cardia. My
friend, Mr. King, of Stanmore, related a case to me, in
which he fancied there existed a stricture in the middle of
the canal. A very interesting case, published in ' The
Veterinarian' for 1830, by Mr. Cheetham, of Glasgow,
leaves no doubt on this point, and throws fresh light on
several others.

Mr. Nice, V.S., Dockhead, sent an account of a case he
had attended to Mr. Sewell, which will be found in the
' Transactions of the Veterinarian Medical Association,'
The symptoms were, that the horse usually fed about five or
seven minutes at a time, without any inconvenience, when
he would become restless, and exhibit hurried breathing,
and spasmodic action in the oesophagus, during which, re-
gurgitation of food took place through the nostrils. At this
time he would strike his belly, and lay down, and rise, &c.
after which he would continue quiet until feeding recom-
menced. He gradually lost his condition. The stricture
was found, post-mortem, about one inch and a half above
the cardiac orifice : the little finger could hardly pass
through it. The oesophagus was very much thickened
around the strictured part, while the muscular fibres, both
longitudinal and circular, were considerably disgregated,
depriving them of much of their normal action over the
dilated sac. Some of the aliment seemed to find its way
into the stomach, which for awhile sustained him.

Mr. Cheetham was called to attend a mare belonging to
an officer of the 4th Dragoon Guards. She discharged
masticated food from the nose; and on the near side of the
neck there was a swelling, in the situation of the oesophagus,
as large as a person's arm, commencing about six inches

246 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

from the pharynx, and gradually increasing to opposite the
sixth cervical vertebra, and there terminating abruptly.
There had existed a partial obstruction for many months,
which had so increased of late, that the animal had been
obliged to be drenched with water to wash down the contents
of the sac : on other occasions a probang had been used.
After such palliations as these, a blister was applied over the
tumor, and she was turned to grass. While there, it was
observed that food, lodged in the sac of the oesophagus, was
frequently returned into the mouth, and afterwards re-swal-
lowed, and then passed into the stomach. On being taken
from grass, a quantity of corn was given to her, in order to
ascertain if the stoppage still existed. The corn accumu-
lated the same as before. Mr. Cheetham determined on an
operation. He made an incision four inches long into the
oesophagus, opposite the sixth cervical vertebra. The tube
seemed divested of its muscular fibres, and was composed of
cuticular coat alone. The contents of the sac were removed,
and she was drenched with warm water to wash out the
oesophagus. The sac appeared three or four inches in
diameter; but the opening leading from it, below, was so
contracted, that it only admitted a probang half an inch in
diameter. After the operation the mare drank freely of
warm water, which, by applying pressure upon the wound,
passed uninterruptedly into the stomach, though without the
pressure the greater part escaped. She was bled, and had
an aperient. The wound was fomented, and poulticed, and
dressed, and the mare partook freely of gruel. Some slough-
ing followed, which brought away part of the oesophagus,
after which the wound became healthy. Mr. Cheetham now
introduced a probang, of the dimensions of the first he used,
through the stricture; which operation he repeated twice
or thrice a day for ten successive days, with probangs of
larger size. Thus was the stricture�which appeared to
have been seated at the place where the tube enters the chest
�overcome; and since then the probang has been occa-
sionally introduced by the owner himself. To assist the
mare in swallowing, the sac was aided in its action by

RUPTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 247

pressure, accomplished by a broad breast-plate, furnished with
a pad. The sac gradually grew less; and the mare at length
became enabled to consume her rations, and soon after
recovered all her life and gaiety.

The appearance op the cardiac stricture is this�
The oesophageal orifice at the stomach is contracted to the
utmost degree : in one of my cases, a sharp-pointed instru-
ment was with difficulty introduced. The muscular fibres
surrounding the strictured part are sometimes prodigiously
augmented in volume; though in other cases�as in Mr. Nice's
�they are "disgregated/" and, so, enfeebled in power; and in
addition there is a morbid thickening of their lining, arising
from deposition into the cellular tissue interposed between
the muscular and cuticular coats. The cuticular membrane
is thrown into rugse unusually large, and is evidently in-
creased in substance. The stomach itself is not affected.

Treatment.�The two cases that came under my notice
were not unmasked until death had afforded the opportunity
of investigating their nature, and consequently were not
submitted to any specific or appropriate treatment. Were I
to encounter another, I should endeavour to pass a bougie,
of proper size, as far as, or even into, the stomach, with a
view of ascertaining the seat and nature of the obstruction;
which, being ascertained to be stricture, might possibly admit
of dilatation, or of the conveyance of caustic to it. Should,
however, so long a passage for the bougie render it unavail-
able against the stricture, we must do as Mr. Cheetham did,
make an incision through the neck into the oesophagus, and
pass the bougie or probang from thence. A cardiac stric-
ture would, of necessity, prove a very troublesome, perhaps
an intractable, affair : one within the neck, or even the chest,
might admit of being overcome.

RUPTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS.

This is a lesion we can hardly look for save from violence
or injury of some kind. Mr. Cartwright relates a.case of it
in ' The Veterinarian/ vol. xxv, p. 545. He was called to

248 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

a mare to whom the groom had been attempting to give a
diuretic ball, without succeeding, who would neither eat nor
swallow, but seemed as if choking, drawing her head towards
her breast and retching, with spasmodic action of the neck,
&c. No obstruction nor enlargement could be discovered.
She retched and coughed occasionally. A sheep probang
introduced stopped at one third of the neck. Water poured
into her mouth in part went down, though most of it re-
turned. Attempted to give gruel, but this produced spasm
and retching. The mare lived eight days. " Prom eight to
ten inches of the upper portion of the oesophagus was found
very dark-coloured and thickened; was, in fact, a mass of
decomposed muscle and cellular tissue, in the interior of which
was a cavity eight inches long: the opening into it com-
mencing superiorly over the larynx, and proceeding into the
muscular substance of the superior part of the oesophagus.
It had evidently been made with some sharp or rough instru-
ment. The remainder of the tube was normal."

Mr. Cartwright remarks, in regard to the case : "From this
rare case we may learn, that the symptoms of such an injury
are not of that violent nature as when there is mechanical
obstruction. This mare lived ten days without swallowing
more, I should think, than a quart or two of water or gruel;
and I fancy she gained little nourishment from the clysters,
as they were frequently ejected after being given. Now,
what produced the injury? The groom acknowledges that
he had been giving a ball the day before, unknown to his
master, but he flatly denies having given it upon the end of
a stick. It is very certain that, if it was not done by such
means, it was wilfully done by some one.

Every now and then it happens that a portion of food, or
some solid body, becomes lodged within the pharynx or
oesophagus, without the horse possessing the power either of
swallowing or disgorging it. Grain, small potatoes, pieces
of turnip or carrot, a ball of large size or hard consistence

or improper shape, even an egg, have all of them proved
causes of obstruction. In vol. xvii of ' The Vete-
rinarian,' Mr. Tennant mentions a case in which grass
" well-masticated," had become firmly impacted and formed
the obstruction. Horses, voracious feeders, are very apt in
their avidity to bolt their corn whole, and gulp it down so
rapidly that the successive portions, instead of passing on
into the stomach, accumulate within the gullet, and block up
its canal. Only a small collection, or else a large and
expanded one, may in this manner arise before the animal
feels or expresses uneasiness. All at once he leaves off
feeding. Next, he makes every effort in his power to com-
plete his imperfect swallow, and gulp down the cause of his
distress. Should he not succeed, his throat and neck
become, through his gulping and ineffectual efforts at deglu-
tition, spasmodically drawn up; and probably he gives every
now and then a loud shriek, no less expressive of his own
anguish than excitive of the sympathy of those around him.
Should he attempt to swallow water, the fluid, together with
a quantity of thick ropy saliva collected in his mouth,
returns through his nostrils. There do occur cases, however,
in which such notably characteristic signs are not met with,
or, at least, are not present at the time we happen to be called
in; and there may exist reasons on the part of those in
attendance for concealing what has passed from us. The
refusal of food, with symptoms of apparent sore throat, con-
nected with circumstances of a suspicious nature, are enough
to induce us to scrutinise the pharynx and oesophagus well
with our fingers, in order to detect any tumor or prominence
that may exist; we may also give the animal water, with a
view of ascertaining whether there be obstruction of any sort
or not. Should the fluid be ejected through the nose, we
are warranted in introducing a probang; than which, in case
the ohstructing body lie below the neck, we possess no other
means so sure of discovering its seat, or any so ready of
removing it, even in any situation. A probang, however, is
an instrument in the possession of professional persons only,
and one, even with them, which often happens to be at home

250 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

at the moment it is wanted, and therefore is one which one
is frequently forced to seek a substitute for. A professional
friend of mine has told me, he has on several occasions, when
the obstruction has existed in the throat, succeeded with the
butt-end of a waggon whip. Cavalry people might have
recourse to a rough-rider's whip. A stout cane of any sort
might answer the purpose. Whatever is to be or can be had,
no time is to be lost. A draught of water is sometimes
effectual; though the probang is, after all, the proper thing
to be had recourse to. And in the selection of his probang
let the practitioner bear in mind the very pertinent practical
remark of Mr. Cartwright, when he says:¹ "As the oesophagus
of the horse is considerably less than that of a cow, it is
highly important to veterinarians to have by them various
sized probangs, and such as are pretty elastic, so as to give the
necessary curve about the larynx." For a very interesting
paper on this subject, published in ' The Veterinarian,' the
profession are indebted to Mr. King, of Stanmore.

Mr. King observes, that choking is common among old
horses whose grinders are imperfect, and whose keen appe-
tites incite them to bolt their corn. He has seen the
oesophagus in this manner distended "almost from the
stomach to the throat:" a case in which recovery is very rare.
Mr. King's practice is to pour down fluids, and press and
squeeze the oesophagus, with the view of commingling the
liquid introduced with the masses of corn j and thus, by
manipulation, has he occasionally succeeded.

The following case shows how much a practitioner may be
led astray by false or imperfect accounts:�




	PERCIVALI/S * HORSE	PATENT SANDAL,
		PATENT SANDAL,

			IMPROVED.
			IMPROVED.
GREATLY The Sandal is a light and portable substitute for a lost horseshoe. A shoe is fre- quently lost in the field, while hunting or exercising with cavalry, and the conse- quences are mortifying in the extreme, or destructive even of our object; unless it happen that a Sandal to fit the horse be carried, either in the rider's pocket, or within a wallet behind the flap of the saddle. It will also serve as a travelling shoe for race-horses, and for horses coming up from grass or strawyard, saving their feet from injury by so much nailing and unnailing. When a proper sized Sandal is obtained, the first time the horse goes to the forge to be shod, the Sandal should be sent with him in order to be fitted; an operation easily performed by the farrier, by putting the Sandal into a vice, and either squeezing the heels nearer . together or opening them wider apart according as required. The clips ought to be made to closely embrace the heels of the hoof. The Sandal is immoveably and firmly attached to the foot (without nails), by means of an endless elastic band, in half a minute ; and is put on and off as readily, in a manner perfectly easy when pointed out, though with difficulty explained in description. The horse's foot is to be taken up and placed between the knees, and the Sandal placed upon it; the thumbs are then to be pressed firmly down upon its heels, and with the two fore fingers of each hand within the band, now lying across the Sandal, slip the inner portion of it upon the heel of the foot; lastly, with the thumbs again stretch the fore portion of band over the toe, and hook it. Sandals are not intended, neither are they required, for the hind foot. The same Sandal will answer for either fore feet, but different sizes of Sandal will be needed for different horses. It is not absolutely necessary for the horse to attend to have a Sandal fitted. The vendor will be enabled to send the proper size by being furnished with one of the animal's old fore shoes ; or even with the outline of his hoof (without the shoe) taken upon paper, and enclosed in a letter. But a close fit at the heels, and a band so tight that it no more than admits of being stretched over the foot, are indispensables. Sold by Oldaker, Saddler, 92, Park Street, Grosvenor Square; Townes, Saddler, 141, Cheapside; and Bbennand, Instrument-maker, 217, High Holborn, London; at the (reduced) price of 5s. 6d. Extra Bands, Is. 6d. Models of Horses' Feet fitted with Sandals may be had of the Patentee. Price 10s. 6d.



	VI	CONTENTS.
		CONTENTS.

Biliary Calculi ..... Splenitis ..... Hypertrophy of the Spleen Ossification of the � . . . Rupture of the � ... Carcinoraa-Melanosis .... SECTION XIV. Diseases or the Urinary Organs Nephritis ..... Abscess ...... Hypertrophy ..... Condensation, Induration, and Soirrlius . Melanosis ..... Polyuria ...... Immoderate Thirst�Dipsosis avens . Albuminous Urine .... Hematuria ..... Diabetes ...... Urinary Calculus .... Renal Calculi ..... Uretal � .... Cystic or Vesical Calculi Urethral Calculus .... Cystitis�Cystorrhoea .... Ischury�Dysury�Strangury Inversion of the Bladder SECTION XV. Diseases op the Organs or Generation Preliminary Observations Disease of the Scrotum .... The Disease mistaken for Syphilis Urethritis-�Gonorrhoea .... Phymosis ..... Paraphymosis ..... Amputation of the Penis Diseases of the Organs of Generation of the Pemale Vaginitis and Leucorrhosa Hysteritis or Metritis . Hysteria ..... Hydrometra_# ..... Diseases of the Ovaries Castration .....



		237
	CARIOUS TEETH.	237
	CARIOUS TEETH.

" The symptoms that would indicate disease of the teeth to be present, would be�imperfect mastication, in con- sequence of which the stomach would have more to do, and, from the food being longer retained within that viscus, its appropriative powers would be enfeebled and deranged, which would speedily be shown by portions of the aliment passing through the digestive track entire. Associated with this would sometimes be a staring coat, with a harsh and unthrifty appearance of the animal; and what is designated hide-bound might also be present, accompanied with more or less emaciation, and a low febrile appearance of the system. Besides all this, in some instances we shall have a portion of the corn, in a half-masticated state, from time to time thrown out of the mouth into the manger, mixed with a quantity of saliva; also, the animal, if watched narrowly, would be observed suffering much pain during mastication, and sud- denly stop and rest for a time, and then begin again to eat. Fcetor, likewise, when the mouth is examined, will be found present to a greater or lesser extent. Who has witnessed these symptoms, and seen the horse hanging his head by the side of the manger, with saliva dribbling from his mouth, cannot hesitate for a moment to acknowledge that the poor brute is suffering pain; which, if we were to call tooth-ache, would not be believed by our employers."¹ CARIOUS TEETH. There are instances on record of carious teeth being dis- covered, and of their being productive of such consequences as have led, through error, to a fatal termination. The following relation ought to operate on our minds as a warning in pronouncing judgment in cases of glanders, or at least in such as assume the semblance of glanders:� A horse, the property of government, became a patient of Mr. Cherry's, on account of a copious defluxion of fetid, discoloured, purulent matter from the near nostril, unaccom- ¹ Gowiug's ' Essay on the Disease of the Teeth of the Horse,' 'Veterinarian,' vol. xxiv.

			�»



		249
	CHOKING.	249
	CHOKING.

or improper shape, even an egg, have all of them proved causes of obstruction. In vol. xvii of ' The Vete- rinarian,' Mr. Tennant mentions a case in which grass " well-masticated," had become firmly impacted and formed the obstruction. Horses, voracious feeders, are very apt in their avidity to bolt their corn whole, and gulp it down so rapidly that the successive portions, instead of passing on into the stomach, accumulate within the gullet, and block up its canal. Only a small collection, or else a large and expanded one, may in this manner arise before the animal feels or expresses uneasiness. All at once he leaves off feeding. Next, he makes every effort in his power to com- plete his imperfect swallow, and gulp down the cause of his distress. Should he not succeed, his throat and neck become, through his gulping and ineffectual efforts at deglu- tition, spasmodically drawn up; and probably he gives every now and then a loud shriek, no less expressive of his own anguish than excitive of the sympathy of those around him. Should he attempt to swallow water, the fluid, together with a quantity of thick ropy saliva collected in his mouth, returns through his nostrils. There do occur cases, however, in which such notably characteristic signs are not met with, or, at least, are not present at the time we happen to be called in; and there may exist reasons on the part of those in attendance for concealing what has passed from us. The refusal of food, with symptoms of apparent sore throat, con- nected with circumstances of a suspicious nature, are enough to induce us to scrutinise the pharynx and oesophagus well with our fingers, in order to detect any tumor or prominence that may exist; we may also give the animal water, with a view of ascertaining whether there be obstruction of any sort or not. Should the fluid be ejected through the nose, we are warranted in introducing a probang; than which, in case the ohstructing body lie below the neck, we possess no other means so sure of discovering its seat, or any so ready of removing it, even in any situation. A probang, however, is an instrument in the possession of professional persons only, and one, even with them, which often happens to be at home



		251
	CHOKING.	251
	CHOKING.

the thoracic portion of the oesophagus, a ball composed of the ashes of tobacco, enveloped in double paper. At first, all knowledge concerning this discovery was stoutly denied; but afterwards a confession came, that the ball had been administered for worms. Had not such delusion been prac- tised, the pi'obang would have been used, and, Mr. King thinks, might have proved effectual. Mr. King also observes, there is a notion abroad that new-laid eggs will improve the condition of horses; and the practice is, to administer them with the shell only starred in a few places : a practice that has in some instances been the means of choking the animal. Mr. King was once called to a horse with a reported " sore throat." The groom swore he knew no cause for it. Mr. King, however, had reasons for entertaining doubts of the man's veracity, and therefore proceeded at once to pass a probang. On the return of the instrument, the bulb was found covered with fragments of egg-shell. The horse speedily recovered. Mr. King has had related to him, on good authority, two similar cases in cattle practice. The following irremediable and fatal case of the same description occurred to Mr. T. Cooper, V.S., Coleshill. In December, 1834, Mr. Cooper was called to Dunton Hall, to a bay horse that was taken suddenly unwell. Mr. Cooper found the animal "coughing violently, and stamping with his fore feet; with saliva running from his mouth, which he occasionally attempted to swallow, though the greater part returned through his nostrils." It was evident there was obstruction. The horse had been eating Swedish turnips. Mr. Cooper passed a whalebone down the oesophagus, " and a rounded substance could be distinctly seen driven before it. The horse after this appeared to be relieved : he ate some hay and drank some water, and was left for the night." Next day he was much worse. "He does not cough, but heaves very much at the flank; refuses all food and drink; is dejected ; saliva with mucus runs from his nose, and much of it he swallows." He was bled; took an aperient with digitalis; and his throat was blistered, from a notion that "the sub-





J. K. ADLABD, PRINTER, BAETHOLOMKW CLOSE.

	BIBUOTHEEK UNIVERSITEIT UTRECHT

		2855 803 3



		226 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. horse which we must not let slip our observation. Although the period of teething, properly so called, may be said to be terminated at the fifth year, yet we must recollect it has been satisfactorily demonstrated, that, in him, there is a process of growth going on in the teeth through the remainder of life; so that, in fact, at no period can the animal be said to be exempt from the influence of dentition. This accounts for lampas appearing in old as well as young horses, and furnishes my mind with strong proof, that the tumidity of the bars of the mouth is dependent upon operations going on in the teeth, and upon that cause alone. There was a time when, I must confess, I treated the subject of dentition so lightly as to think that horses never suffered or became disordered from such a cause. Experience, however, has altered my opinion. I can now, in practice, frequently discover young horses with disorder or febrile irritation upon them, the production or continuation of which I hesitate not to ascribe to teething; and I find these views borne out by the relief obtained by the increased atten- tion I am in the habit of giving to this assumed cause in my treatment. In illustration of this, I will here relate a case which occurred to me many years ago; the very one, in fact, which proved the occasion of my looking afterwards more closely into dentition. I was requested to give my opinion concerning a horse, then in his fifth year, who had fed so sparingly for the last fortnight, and so rapidly declined in condition in conse- quence, that his owner, a veterinary surgeon, was under no light apprehensions about his life. He had himself examined his mouth, without having discovered any defect or disease; though another veterinary surgeon was of opinion, that the difficulty or inability manifested in mastication, and the consequent cudding, arose from preternatural bluntness of the surfaces of the molar teeth, which were, in consequence, filed, but without beneficial result. It was after this that I saw the horse; and I confess I was, at my first examina- tion, quite as much at a loss to offer any satisfactory interpre- tation as others had been. While meditating, however, after



		DENTITION. 227 my inspection, on the apparently extraordinary nature of the case, it struck me that I had not seen the tusks, I went back into the stable, and discovered two little tumours, red and hard, in the situation of the inferior tusks, which, when pressed, gave the animal insufferable pain. I instantly took out my pocket-knife, and made crucial incisions through them both, down to the coming teeth, from which moment the horse recovered his appetite, and by degrees his wonted condition. The above case might likewise be quoted in illustration of another fact connected with this subject, which is, that the cutting of the tusks�which may be likened to the eye- teeth of.children�costs the constitution more derangement than the cutting of all the other teeth put together; on which account, no doubt, it is that the period from the fourth to the fifth year proves so critical a one with the domiciled horse. Any disease, pulmonary in particular, setting in at this interval,is doubly dangerous, from its being augmented or kept up by the existing irritation of teething : in fact, teeth- ing is one auxiliary cause of the known fatality among horses at this period of their lifetime. Professor Galle, of Toulouse, who wrote, in 1839, 'A Treatise on the Pathology of the Ox/ says : " The cutting of the teeth in the ox, as well as in the horse, is attended by loss of appetite, and redness and heat of mouth ; the head hangs down; the eyes weep; and sometimes there is cough, coryza, and diarrhoea." " I have seen persons, careless or deficient in medical tact, bleed and physic an ox, supposing that they were combating bronchitis or gastro-enteritis; and, after two or three days, the proprietor or the cowherd has found one or two molar teeth in the manger." Reasoning, en philosophe, on the subject, with a view of showing in what manner teething is necessarily productive of the consequences ascribed to it, D'Arboval tells us to ob- serve how the vital energy becomes augmented about the head, and upon the mucous surfaces in particular. "A sort of local fever originates in the alveolar cavities, running high or low according to the resistance the teeth encounter from



			DENTITION. 229

		catarrhal and bronchial inflammations abated, coughs re- lieved, lymphatic and other glandular tumours about the head reduced, cutaneous eruptions got rid of, deranged bowels restored to order, appetite returned, lost condition repaired. I am quite sure, too little attention has been paid to the teeth in the medical treatment of young horses; and I would counsel those who have such charges by no means to disregard this remark, trifling as it may appear. Dr. Marshall Hall says : " There is no practical fact of the truth and value of which I am more satisfied than that of the effect and efficacy of scarification of the gums of infants, and not in infants only, but in children. But it is to the base of the gums, not to their apex merely, that the scarification should be applied. The most marked case in which I have observed the instant good effect of scarification was one in which all the teeth had pierced the gums. 1 have been accused of unnecessarily frequently (daily) scari- fying the gums; to which my answer is, 'Better scarify the gums unnecessarily a hundred times, than allow the accession of one fit or convulsion.' And it is not merely the prominent tense gum over the edges of the teeth that should be divided; the gums, or rather the blood-vessels immediately over the very nerves of the teeth, should be scarified and divided as you would divide the vessels of the conjunctiva in inflammation of that membrane. And repeat daily ; in urgent cases twice a day.¹ The pathognomonic symptoms calling our attention, whether it be in young or old horses, if not exactly to the teeth themselves, to the mouth in general, are large dis- charges of saliva from the mouth, with continual slobbering; cudding of the food; difficulty of mastication or deglutition, or of both; stench of buccal secretion, perhaps of the breath as well. Symptoms such as these manifesting them- selves ought to lead us without delay to a thorough exami- nation of the horse's mouth. ¹ Vide Marshal Hall's ' New Memoir of the Nervous System.'



			230 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC.

		LAMPAS. With the subject of dentition is closely allied another one to which those knowing in horse matters, but unread in medical philosophy, attach great importance, yclept "lampas." According to D'Arboval, the word is of French origin : it is a " terme de manege" which has found its way into veterinary medicine from the circumstance of its having been, figura- tively or burlesquely, used to signify the palate or inside of the mouth. What we, now-a-days. understand by lampas, is, an unnatural prominence or tumidity of the cartilaginous bars forming the roof of the mouth. These bars, naturally, are pale coloured, and arched in figure; whereas, in a mouth affected with lampas, they are red and tumid, lose their cir- cumfiexure, and appear bulging, descending upon a level with the surfaces of the upper nippers, and in some cases even below them. This apparent augmentation of substance is, no doubt, ascribable to congestion of blood; but not to that alone, for I believe in many cases there will be found to be some serous and albuminous infiltration into the cellular membrane attaching the bars to the hard palate : which will account for the length of time they are known sometimes to continue, as well as for the little relief, in regard to their diminution, which in such cases attends lancing of the gums. Although in young horses it is, I believe, admitted by all horse people, that lampas is occasioned by the cutting of the teeth, yet, in old horses, there are those who ascribe their production to other causes, and imagine they have a good deal to do with the animal's state of health, or rather with his feeding. That they may in some cases be the occasion of tenderness in mastication, I do not deny; at the same time I think I may safely affirm, that, in nine times out of ten, the cause of loss of appetite will be found elsewhere. The reason why lampas appear in aged horses, is, in my opinion, as I before stated, on account of the continuance of the process of growth, demonstrated to be going on through life, in the teeth, with the nature and laws of which we are, in



			LAMPAS. 231

		our present state of knowledge, too little acquainted to pretend to say why the lampas should exist in one horse and not in another, or why it should only at times appear in the same horse. Are Lampas Disease ?�The complaints, heavy and grievous, which are daily reaching our ears, are enough to persuade us they are : every groom having an unthriviug horse, or one that does not feed, is sure to search for lampas; and, should he find any, in his mind the cause of failure is detected, and the remedy obvious�"burning them out." Many a poor wight of a horse, even while suffering from some real constitutional malady, has been subjected to this torturing operation, with a view of demon- strating the sagacity of the groom, and thereby has got added to his other ailments, a foul, sloughy, carious sore upon the roof of his mouth. This may be said to be the fruits of " Burning for the Lampas."�Supposing that their ex- istence be owing to the teeth, do not the teeth require re- moval, and not the bars of the mouth ? In cutting or burning away the lampas we are mistaking the effect for the cause. If it be contended that lampas do not owe their production to the irritation of teething, then, I should like to be informed what is the origin of them; and, let what will give rise to them, I do not imagine there is any vete- rinarian hardy enough to contend that the cause resides in the palate, or becomes removed by the actual cautery ! Those who are entering private practice, and find them- selves compelled, at times, to belie their consciences by the performance of unnecessary operations to please their em- ployers, may be told, that burning out lampas is, after all, preferable to lancing or cutting the bars; for, unless the palatine artery be wounded, very little blood is obtained by stabbing the mouth ; and the wounding of this vessel, which will certainly take place should the punctures be made along the sides of the palate, or extend forward beyond the fourth bar from the front teeth, is not always a very safe proceeding, I remember a case of the kind in which it be-



MW>��»�i »»' � '

		232 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. came necessary to bind compresses of tow firmly upon the bleeding parts; which could be effected only by carrying a broad tape around the jaw between the tusks and corner incisors, and confining it there by tying its two ends in a knot upon the front of the gum, underneath the upper lip. After a couple of hours the compress was removed, and the hemorrhage proved to have been permanently arrested. Had the operation of torsion been known to me, I might, I think, have succeeded in stanching the hemorrhage with less trouble and in less time. The Operation of Bubning, if it must be performed, appears best done in the old farriers' mode of proceeding. An iron, shaped as under,

	is heated to redness, and with its edge, which ought to be sharp, a portion of the substance of the bars, about the size of a crown piece, from tbe middle aud most protuberant part, is sliced off; care being taken that the instrument does not penetrate deep enough to sear the bone. This at once gets rid of the assumed evil, and is altogether the pre- ferable operation; nor will it, performed in this partial and cautious manner, be productive of any very serious mischief. SHAKP AND PROJECTING TEETH. Among the annoyances and hinderances the horse expe- riences to his eating, may be classed a sharpened and over- grown state of the molar teeth or grinders. Some irregular action in the jaws occasions a slanting wear of their grind- ing surfaces, and the consequence, in the course of time, is the projection, to a considerable extent, of the inner of the lateral edges of those teeth beyond the outer, and the consequent conversion of their grinding surfaces, from an as- perous level into an inclined plane, of greater or less extent according to the length of time the change has been going



		234 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. au incisor or a molar, has lost its opponent, and thereby becomes deprived of all counter-pressure, it shoots beyond its fellows in the same jaw; and is apt to grow to such a length a3 not only to interrupt mastication, but even impede the closure of the jaws. Mr. H. Surmon relates�in vol. ii of ' The Veterinarian '�a very instructive case of this description. "A neighbour of his possessed a horse that had continued to lose his appetite and condition for some weeks. The first time Mr. Surmon examined the mouth he perceived nothing extraordinary. The horse, emaciated to a skeleton, was to be destroyed. Mr. Surmon examined his mouth ouce more, and, with a balling-iron keeping it open, he introduced his hand, and discovered two lower teeth, one on each side, which had outgrown the others to that extent that they were actually pressing against the roof of the mouth. Mr. Surmon made attempts to extract them with a key, such as is used by sur- geons ; but these proved fruitless. He jffM afterwards contrived an instrument, ilr (which is here represented) with which f he perfectly succeeded. In using it, he ^ passed the forked end into the mouth, ^^^^T^ and fixed the tooth to be extracted ^"^^^ within the fork. The handle�a most powerful lever�being then turned on its axis, the tooth became forced out with the greatest ease. The horse Mr. Surmon operated on, began after the operation to feed again, and rapidly recovered his health and strength, and went to work as well as ever. This instrument, however, after all, amounts in operation to nothing beyond the ordinary tooth-key, upon a magnified scale, and is in many respects not so efficient, in conse- cpjence of its wanting the adjusting and grasping powers of the key. Mr. Cherry, the Principal Veterinary Surgeon to the Cavalry, is in the habit of using a key of such large dimensions that the handle is intended to be turned by both* hands of the operator, thus affording him a lever-extractor of highly augmented power.



		236 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. (fig. 4). Another instrument bearing some resemblance to the lateral, is the posterior repeller, whose utility is principally for the back teeth. With this instrument, where necrosis of the tooth has taken place, traction, to a certain degree, may be made, in consequence of its being turned down or necked at the end. Another instrument required is a common chisel, somewhat longer and stronger than the one in ordinary use. Also, another pair of forceps, smaller than the giant ones, without the cross-lever, but billed or notched at their points. (Fig. 7), is a gum lancet of considerable length, to " enable one to scarify gums without reaching one's hand through the balling-iron." The only alteration Mr. Gowing has made in the tooth-rasp (fig. 8), is the addition of a shifting handle, of some length, " whereby greater power is gained, besides the advantage of being able to add a new rasp, or any other instrument, to it, that the veterinary surgeon may deem expedient." This imperfect sketch of the "proper dental instruments," will not serve for more than an inducement to the man who is in earnest in preparing himself in practice against all con- tingencies, to furnish himself with a case of such instruments, and make himself perfect master of their use, by perusing Mr. Gowing's excellent practical paper, which he will find in ' The Veterinarian/ vol. xxiv, pp. 630-40. TOOTH-ACHE. Disease of the teeth is rare in the horse. Mr. Gowing has found the disease mostly occurring in cart and other under-bred horses, which he suggests may arise, in part, from the coarser food given to them. Another cause is, as the horse advances in years, the interstices arising between their molar teeth, into which the food gets and lodges. And Mr. Gowing believes it to be a fact, " that disease begins either at the neck or in the fang of the tooth in our patients, and not usually at the crown." " It is a common practice with carters to sprinkle the pi'ovcndcr with sulphuric acid, and we all well know the action of acids on the teeth."



		238 DISEASES OP THE TEETH, ETC. panied either by submaxillary tumefaction or by ulceration of the Schneiderian membrane. For two or three months the case was treated for glanders; but, no amendment appearing, a consultation was deemed necessary, the result of which was, the horse was shot. On examination of the head, the third molar tooth proved to be carious; one third of its fang being already consumed, and the remainder rotten. The formation of an abscess within its socket had rendered the tooth loose, and the matter flowing therefrom had established a passage into the contiguous chamber of the nose. The antrum, also, was in part obstructed by the deposition of osseous matter. This is a case which, but for the inquisitiveness of Mr. Cherry, would have indiscriminately merged into that heterogeneous class of diseases passing under the appellation of chronic glanders. My father's museum contained several preparations of carious teeth. One was that of a molar tooth, whose interior was black and rugged, from being eroded by ulceration, and whose fangs had from the same cause mouldered away. Two others presented brittle exostoses upon their sides, forming spacious cavities within, and communicating with the con- tiguous grinders. One of them exhibited a perforation through which pus appeared to have issued. They seemed both to have been cases which had originated in internal injury. The rarity of such occurrences disinclines one to seek for them; and, especially, since we are not in possession of any sure indications of their existence. Cudding the food, fetid breath and saliva, either with or without any purulent issue from the nose, might lead to an examination of the mouth, and the discoloration of a tooth would prompt us to ascer- tain whether it were loose or not, and, if loose, to extract it: further than this I am not prepared to advise. PAKROT MOUTH. By this appellation horse-people understand what dog- fanciers call "overhung;" i.e., a mouth so formed�or rather so malformed�that the upper jaw overshoots or pro-



		TUMOR OF THE LIP. 239 jects considerably beyond the lower; so much so, that the inferior incisor teeth, instead of meeting their opponents, come in contact, when the mouth is shut, with the bars of the palate; while the teeth of the superior jaw have no opposing surface whatever, unless the lower lip can be so regarded. This deformity is not a very common occurrence; nor is it one altogether so objectionable, since the horse has the power of gathering up his hay and corn with his lips, although the process (as well as the retention of the food while it is being transferred to the grinders) is but imperfectly performed, as is seen by the animal, while feeding, scattering and wasting part of his corn, and slobbering at the same time. In grazing, the parrot mouth must be greatly more disadvan- tageous : much difficulty must of necessity be experienced in nipping off the grass; and this seems to me to be the chief objection to the purchase of such a horse : at least, this formed the ground of objection, I remember, of a recruit horse with a parrot-mouth which was offered to the 1st Life Guards. TUMOR OF THE LIP. Now and then horses are brought to us with swollen lips, or rather lower lip, for I do not remember much about the upper. There grows a swelling of one side of it, confined to that side, and more apparent when the lip comes to be everted than before. It has a solid, firm feel, is perhaps altogether about the size of a pigeon's egg, and is hot, and gives pain when squeezed. I have on no occasion been able to trace any connection between the tumor and the reception of injury of any kind, from the bit, though I have known it to arise from a bite or sting : otherwise, I have been forced to regard its origin as spontaneous. I have ordered fo- mentation and frequent steaming of the muzzle, and cathartic medicine. In the course of the second or third day, how- ever, it has generally happened, that the tumour has burst inwardly, and discharged a thin ill-looking purulent matter, composed probably of pus and the secretion of the lip; after



		242 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. jaws by gritting against the teeth: these constituting the evils arising from its presence. In general, the growth of this kind of calculus is extremely slow; so that it is some considerable time before such effects are produced. When it has attained sufficient magnitude to cause obstruction, the portion of duct between it and the gland becomes swollen from the accumulation of saliva. According to the analysis of Thenard, these calculi are composed of calcareous phosphate in combination with some little carbonate of lime. Treatment.�We possess no means of dissolving these calculi; but we can extract them, and in some cases with- out cutting into the duct, which is an operation now and then succeeded by a troublesome fistula. When the stone proves to be at the buccal orifice of the canal, and the molar teeth present the only obstacle to its escape, it will often be sufficient to extend the cheek and give it a good shake or two with the hand to dislodge it. Should the calculus appear to be strangulated within the canal, we must divide the stricture first. This may be done by fixing the mouth wide open with a ball-iron, and introducing a bistoury tied to a stick, to serve as a long handle, while the Other hand is engaged in drawing the tongue out of the way. Should the stone not fall out after the division of the stricture, it may be seized with forceps and extracted. A mash or liquid diet ought to follow the operation. Even when not at the orifice, but felt externally some way within the canal under the skin, should the calculus not be large, some dexterous manipulation might force it on- ward into the mouth. As it but seldom happens, however, that our attention is drawn to it before its bulk is such as to preclude the possibility of stirring it, we are in general necessitated to incise the duct in order to extract it. And in making our incision, we are to do it cautiously, in the direction of the canal, from one extremity to the other of the tumor; and, as soon as we have extracted the calculus, either with our fingers or forceps, take special care to ap- proximate the lips of the wound and retain them in appo- sition by some adhesive plaster, lest we incur the consequences



		STRICTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 243 of a fistulous duct, which sometimes amounts to an evil as great as, or even greater than, the calculus itself had proved. In some cases sutures may be found requisite. A compress will generally with advantage be applied upon the portion of duct intervening between its gland and the wound. A great consideration in the treatment is, to keep the jaws as quiet as possible; and therefore the horse ought to be sup- ported for some days upon liquid aliment. Although it is right to take such precautions, many of these wounds heal and do well with comparatively little care. M. Vieillard extracted salivary calculi from three troop-horses without leaving any fistula. And M. Girard has seen the gland itself cut into for the purpose of evacuating a salivary abscess, and afterwards complete cicatrization ensue. This account is followed by the relation of several cases illustrative of what has been said, whose insertion here would prove of little or no service to us. STRICTURE OF THE OESOPHAGUS. By stricture is meant, a diminished or contracted state of some tube or duct of the body. In man, we find strictures occurring in all the mucous canals�-oesophagus, intestines, urethra, vagina: in the horse they have hitherto been dis- covered in no others, I believe, but the oesophagus and intestines. A stricture is either spasmodic or organic: that is, the muscular or contractile power of the tube only is at fault, and that is functional; or else, its lining membrane is thickened, and perhaps altered in texture as well. The stricture I am going to treat on will be found to be of the organic kind. Its occurrence is rare; at least I argue so, from having myself come to the knowledge of but four instances of it. A case of it in a cow is related in ' The Vete- rinarian' for June, 1843. The Symptoms of a strictured oesophagus, so far as I have been enabled to note them, are, at first, a gradual falling off in strength and spirits and appetite, with some attendant febrile disorder; cudding not only hay, but corn likewise,



		244 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. and ejecting both, either through the nose as well as mouth, or through the mouth alone, after they have been thoroughly masticated and mingled with saliva, and rendered, in fact, fit to be swallowed. In some cases the disgorged cud does not seem to have entered the oesophagus at all: the animal, knowing he cannot swallow, appears not to attempt it. In other cases, the cud descends as low down into the gullet as the seat of stricture, and there lodges until disgorged again, causing distension of the tube at that part, and, in time, the formation of a considerable dilatation or sac. Now that the horse disgorges the greater part or whole of the solid food he consumes, the appetite, from having been indifferent, becomes painfully keen : no sooner is a fresh supply of provender set before the animal than he seizes and devours it for a time with avidity ; but, alas ! this proves in the end only the means of augmenting his suffering; for, as soon as he has swallowed it, or a few minutes or more afterwards, he discovers his inability, or rather the pain and difficulty he is about to experience in further deglutition ; and consequently prefers returning most, if not all, of what he has been chewing, into his manger. At this period, he be- comes, in some instances, restless and agitated, breathes hard and quick, and evinces spasmodic action commencing in the tube by striking his belly, pawing, lying down and rising, &c, so long at least as the inverted action is going on. Deprived of his aliment, the animal daily continues to lose flesh, and with it his strength and spirits, everything around appearing after a time indifferent to him, save his fresh feeds, which he plucks up to eat with renewed vigour, only, however, to encounter renewed disappointment, and perhaps paroxysms of annoyance and agitation, and pain as well. There exists in general no unwillingness nor impediment to his swallowing his water; nor are balls even, during the early stages of the disease, rejected. His skin, after a time, becomes hide-bound; his coat harsh and dry and scurfy. Early in the complaint, the bowels are commonly much constipated, and require repeated aperients to keep them soluble : later, a diarrhoea is apt to supervene. A slow fever



		STRICTURE OP THE (ESOPHAGUS. 245 accompanies these symptoms: the pulse commonly ranging between 50 and 60. The horse lies down sometimes by day as well as by night. Emaciation proceeds, until, from de- bility and inanition, the exhausted animal sinks to rise no more. The seat of Stricture varies. In two cases which occurred in my own practice, it proved to be the place where the oesophagus enters the stomach�in the cardia. My friend, Mr. King, of Stanmore, related a case to me, in which he fancied there existed a stricture in the middle of the canal. A very interesting case, published in ' The Veterinarian' for 1830, by Mr. Cheetham, of Glasgow, leaves no doubt on this point, and throws fresh light on several others. Mr. Nice, V.S., Dockhead, sent an account of a case he had attended to Mr. Sewell, which will be found in the ' Transactions of the Veterinarian Medical Association,' The symptoms were, that the horse usually fed about five or seven minutes at a time, without any inconvenience, when he would become restless, and exhibit hurried breathing, and spasmodic action in the oesophagus, during which, re- gurgitation of food took place through the nostrils. At this time he would strike his belly, and lay down, and rise, &c. after which he would continue quiet until feeding recom- menced. He gradually lost his condition. The stricture was found, post-mortem, about one inch and a half above the cardiac orifice : the little finger could hardly pass through it. The oesophagus was very much thickened around the strictured part, while the muscular fibres, both longitudinal and circular, were considerably disgregated, depriving them of much of their normal action over the dilated sac. Some of the aliment seemed to find its way into the stomach, which for awhile sustained him. Mr. Cheetham was called to attend a mare belonging to an officer of the 4th Dragoon Guards. She discharged masticated food from the nose; and on the near side of the neck there was a swelling, in the situation of the oesophagus, as large as a person's arm, commencing about six inches



		246 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. from the pharynx, and gradually increasing to opposite the sixth cervical vertebra, and there terminating abruptly. There had existed a partial obstruction for many months, which had so increased of late, that the animal had been obliged to be drenched with water to wash down the contents of the sac : on other occasions a probang had been used. After such palliations as these, a blister was applied over the tumor, and she was turned to grass. While there, it was observed that food, lodged in the sac of the oesophagus, was frequently returned into the mouth, and afterwards re-swal- lowed, and then passed into the stomach. On being taken from grass, a quantity of corn was given to her, in order to ascertain if the stoppage still existed. The corn accumu- lated the same as before. Mr. Cheetham determined on an operation. He made an incision four inches long into the oesophagus, opposite the sixth cervical vertebra. The tube seemed divested of its muscular fibres, and was composed of cuticular coat alone. The contents of the sac were removed, and she was drenched with warm water to wash out the oesophagus. The sac appeared three or four inches in diameter; but the opening leading from it, below, was so contracted, that it only admitted a probang half an inch in diameter. After the operation the mare drank freely of warm water, which, by applying pressure upon the wound, passed uninterruptedly into the stomach, though without the pressure the greater part escaped. She was bled, and had an aperient. The wound was fomented, and poulticed, and dressed, and the mare partook freely of gruel. Some slough- ing followed, which brought away part of the oesophagus, after which the wound became healthy. Mr. Cheetham now introduced a probang, of the dimensions of the first he used, through the stricture; which operation he repeated twice or thrice a day for ten successive days, with probangs of larger size. Thus was the stricture�which appeared to have been seated at the place where the tube enters the chest �overcome; and since then the probang has been occa- sionally introduced by the owner himself. To assist the mare in swallowing, the sac was aided in its action by



		RUPTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 247 pressure, accomplished by a broad breast-plate, furnished with a pad. The sac gradually grew less; and the mare at length became enabled to consume her rations, and soon after recovered all her life and gaiety. The appearance op the cardiac stricture is this� The oesophageal orifice at the stomach is contracted to the utmost degree : in one of my cases, a sharp-pointed instru- ment was with difficulty introduced. The muscular fibres surrounding the strictured part are sometimes prodigiously augmented in volume; though in other cases�as in Mr. Nice's �they are "disgregated/" and, so, enfeebled in power; and in addition there is a morbid thickening of their lining, arising from deposition into the cellular tissue interposed between the muscular and cuticular coats. The cuticular membrane is thrown into rugse unusually large, and is evidently in- creased in substance. The stomach itself is not affected. Treatment.�The two cases that came under my notice were not unmasked until death had afforded the opportunity of investigating their nature, and consequently were not submitted to any specific or appropriate treatment. Were I to encounter another, I should endeavour to pass a bougie, of proper size, as far as, or even into, the stomach, with a view of ascertaining the seat and nature of the obstruction; which, being ascertained to be stricture, might possibly admit of dilatation, or of the conveyance of caustic to it. Should, however, so long a passage for the bougie render it unavail- able against the stricture, we must do as Mr. Cheetham did, make an incision through the neck into the oesophagus, and pass the bougie or probang from thence. A cardiac stric- ture would, of necessity, prove a very troublesome, perhaps an intractable, affair : one within the neck, or even the chest, might admit of being overcome. RUPTURE OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. This is a lesion we can hardly look for save from violence or injury of some kind. Mr. Cartwright relates a.case of it in ' The Veterinarian/ vol. xxv, p. 545. He was called to



		248 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. a mare to whom the groom had been attempting to give a diuretic ball, without succeeding, who would neither eat nor swallow, but seemed as if choking, drawing her head towards her breast and retching, with spasmodic action of the neck, &c. No obstruction nor enlargement could be discovered. She retched and coughed occasionally. A sheep probang introduced stopped at one third of the neck. Water poured into her mouth in part went down, though most of it re- turned. Attempted to give gruel, but this produced spasm and retching. The mare lived eight days. " Prom eight to ten inches of the upper portion of the oesophagus was found very dark-coloured and thickened; was, in fact, a mass of decomposed muscle and cellular tissue, in the interior of which was a cavity eight inches long: the opening into it com- mencing superiorly over the larynx, and proceeding into the muscular substance of the superior part of the oesophagus. It had evidently been made with some sharp or rough instru- ment. The remainder of the tube was normal." Mr. Cartwright remarks, in regard to the case : "From this rare case we may learn, that the symptoms of such an injury are not of that violent nature as when there is mechanical obstruction. This mare lived ten days without swallowing more, I should think, than a quart or two of water or gruel; and I fancy she gained little nourishment from the clysters, as they were frequently ejected after being given. Now, what produced the injury? The groom acknowledges that he had been giving a ball the day before, unknown to his master, but he flatly denies having given it upon the end of a stick. It is very certain that, if it was not done by such means, it was wilfully done by some one. CHOKING. Every now and then it happens that a portion of food, or some solid body, becomes lodged within the pharynx or oesophagus, without the horse possessing the power either of swallowing or disgorging it. Grain, small potatoes, pieces of turnip or carrot, a ball of large size or hard consistence



		250 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. at the moment it is wanted, and therefore is one which one is frequently forced to seek a substitute for. A professional friend of mine has told me, he has on several occasions, when the obstruction has existed in the throat, succeeded with the butt-end of a waggon whip. Cavalry people might have recourse to a rough-rider's whip. A stout cane of any sort might answer the purpose. Whatever is to be or can be had, no time is to be lost. A draught of water is sometimes effectual; though the probang is, after all, the proper thing to be had recourse to. And in the selection of his probang let the practitioner bear in mind the very pertinent practical remark of Mr. Cartwright, when he says:¹ "As the oesophagus of the horse is considerably less than that of a cow, it is highly important to veterinarians to have by them various sized probangs, and such as are pretty elastic, so as to give the necessary curve about the larynx." For a very interesting paper on this subject, published in ' The Veterinarian,' the profession are indebted to Mr. King, of Stanmore. Mr. King observes, that choking is common among old horses whose grinders are imperfect, and whose keen appe- tites incite them to bolt their corn. He has seen the oesophagus in this manner distended "almost from the stomach to the throat:" a case in which recovery is very rare. Mr. King's practice is to pour down fluids, and press and squeeze the oesophagus, with the view of commingling the liquid introduced with the masses of corn j and thus, by manipulation, has he occasionally succeeded. The following case shows how much a practitioner may be led astray by false or imperfect accounts:� Some years ago Mr. King was called to a horse belonging to a coach proprietor. The owner said his horse " had a bad sore throat, and could not swallow." Mr. King examined the throat and gullet, but, finding nothing, suspected nothing. The horse was blistered and drenched; but the liquids all returned, no effort being made to swallow them. The animal died: and, on examination, was found, within ¹ In his account of a case of ' Laceration of the (Esophagus,' in the ' Veteri- narian," vol. xxx, p. 548.



		252 DISEASES OP THE TEETH, ETC. stance might have injured his throat." Third day: much the same. " Takes gruel from a bottle, but will not eat." Mr. Cooper from the first had no hope of saving him, and early next morning he died. On dissection, a large sized hen's egg, entirely whole, was found firmly impacted in the oeso- phagus, within a few inches of its cardiac termination; the parietes of the tube around the egg being "much dilated, and ulcerated nearly through." The groom confessed he had given the egg a few hours before Mr. Cooper was sent for, with a view of improving the horse's condition. The balls which had been given must have passed the egg in a liquid state, probably along with the gruel.�Veterinarian, 1835. Ma. George Holmes, V.S., Thirst, Yorkshire, has, in 'The Veterinarian' for 1839, detailed a case of much in- terest, no less from its pressingly dangerous tendency than from the prompt and judicious manner in which he treated it. Mr. H. was sent for in great haste to Ashbury House, to a horse in a most distressing state, "breathing with the greatest difficulty, heaving violently at the flanks, with the countenance exhibiting an expression of the intensest agony. He was foaming at the mouth, his ears were cold, and, in fact, it was evident that, unless instant relief were afforded, he must die; since a ball had been given a little while before, which had stuck in his throat." Mr. H. could detect no ball in the oesophagus: he was convinced it was in the fauces, or pressing against the larynx; but the violent heaving, and the instant suffocation that threatened when he was moved, precluded any attempt to pass the probang. Mr. H. therefore determined on imme- diate tracheotomy. This gave instant, but very far from permanent relief. After a short interval Mr. H. endeavoured to pass the probang, and, after repeated attempts, succeeded in removing the ball. The horse was then bled, and had an aperient ball. Still he breathed high, and his pulse was 100: he was, therefore, bled again, and took two scru- ples of opium, with the same quantity of digitalis: this admirably allayed the irritation. Fifteen hours after, all was going on well.



		253
	CESOPHAGOTOMY.	253
	CESOPHAGOTOMY.

These occurrences are exceeding rare in army practice. I can charge my memory but with one such a case; and that originated in some one having clandestinely given the horse an entire potato to eat. I attribute this exemption to three causes. First, to cavalry horses being fed four times a day, and not being allowed above a quartern of oats at a time. Secondly, to no roots or hard substances whatever being given them for food. Thirdly, to the balls which are exhibited being such as are fresh compounded, and con- sequently not hard. The shape of the ball is also a con- sideration.¹ I quite agree with Mr. King, that, in combination with the probang, the patent stomach syringe should be employed in these cases, and no doubt might be with very great ser- vice. The probang we use ought to be a perforated or tubular one, through which, when introduced, liquids might be injected without the trouble and loss of time of a fresh introduction. CESOPHAGOTOMY. When the means detailed under the head of " Choking" prove ineffectual for the removal of the foreign body�what- ever it may be�obstructing the canal of the oesophagus, the operation of cutting into the tube, called (ssophagotomy, must be our resource; unless it happen that the obstruction be below the neck, within the chest, and then no knife can pos- sibly reach it. The same operation may likewise be prac- tised with a view of overcoming impermeable stricture, or for the purpose of injecting medicinal or alimentary matters into the stomach when there is no possibility of introducing them through the mouth. In the hands of a veterinary anatomist there is nothing to dread in the performance of cesophagotomy; although, from the oesophagus lying behind the windpipe, and much deeper seated, and there being the jugular veins and carotid arteries, and par vagum, and sym- pathetic and recurrent nerves, along the sides of the trachea, ■ Vol. i, p. 47.



		254 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. the scalpel requires to be handled with considerable caution as well as skill. Recollecting that the oesophagus, after pro- ceeding down one third of the neck, inclines to the left of the trachea, and before it reaches the chest gets quite round to the left of that tube, had we our choice, we should un- doubtedly select the left side of the neck, and below the upper third of it, for the operation. Supposing we take the middle of the neck, our first incision�on which much of our ultimate success will depend-�should be three inches in length, and be directed along the inferior border of the jugular vein; which vessel had better be kept distended the while by pressure from the hand of an assistant. The lips of the wound being then kept apart by the assistant, the operator carefully prosecutes his dissection through the cel- lular tissue with which this hollow abounds, keeping his knife from wounding the jugular on his right, and guarding against the carotid artery and nerves which lie enveloped in the cellular substance contiguous to the windpipe, whose situation he will best ascertain by feeling for the pulsations of the artery. His object now is to get behind the carotid, and there to feel for the windpipe ; and this being found, will guide him to a firm, chordiform, shining, red substanee, in close apposition with it, which is the oesophagus. In case any injection into it be required, the oesophagus must be drawn forward with a blunt hook, and opened by a longi- tudinal incision, and an appropriate tube introduced. But where the extraction of a foreign body is our object-�a cir- cumstance that will render the operation much more facile, the tumor being our guide for incision,�nothing remains to be done, after this exposure, but to liberate the imprisoned substance, whatever it may be, and afterwards to close the wound in the oesophagus with a common continued suture of silk-thread, and unite the lips of the external wound with pins and tow twisted round them, in the same manner as the wound after bleeding is closed ; or, if preferred, the zinc wire suture may be employed. Lastly, a compress upon the wound, confined by a roller round the neck, will give sup- port, and for a day or two, perhaps, be found serviceable.



			(ESOPHAGOTOMY. 255

		During the healing of the wound the animaFs diet ought to be liquid, or nearly so : gruel, thick and nutritive, and boiled roots, with mashes of various liquid-like aliment; chopped green meat of any soft and succulent kind, and short-cut grass are also admissible. Sometimes it happens, when we come to operate, that the mucous lining of the tube proves to be ruptured or ulcerated through, on the back side of the obstructing body, and perhaps too in front, and becomes detached from the muscular coat, owing, in the first instance, to extreme distension. This renders the case exceeding troublesome, and even dangerous, to manage, and now and then proves the cause of dissolution. An instance of this is related in ' The Veterinarian/ vol. XVII, p. 36. The following case is well worth attention, on account of its showing .what may be sometimes effected by simple manipulation, without going to the extremity of laying open the oesophagus. Mr. King was summoned to a horse that had had a ball administered to him by the groom, wrapped up in writing paper; since which he had ejected everything he had eaten or drunk. Mr. King discovered a prominence in the neck, a little above its middle, and tried all means to force the ob- structing body onwards; but without avail. At length Mr. King determined on cutting down upon the oesophagus; having done which, without opening the tube, he found the obstruc- tion arose from the lodgment of the ball the groom had given. Feeling the tumour soft and compressible, he squeezed and kneaded it with his fingers and thumb for some time, and then left it in statu quo. Shortly afterwards, the ball was by natural efforts carried down into the stomach, and liquids were taken, and readily passed. It was not for some time, however, that the animal became enabled to take solids into his stomach : whenever he swallowed them they were rejected through the mouth and nose the moment they had descended so low as the place where the ball had stopped. Mr. King thought that this must have been owing to the presence of a stricture, an opinion he conceived warrantable



			*�.,,,..�, ... -,......... ,,.,. .~~, .�~~ �a� ..■■. � .. .--------.-----------,.-.,,■ ■, * �~~y u~~p wd~~w.....~~■■■■■"■«.�**

		256 DISEASES OF THE TEETH, ETC. from the circumstance of the ball being in itself but a small one, and of soft composition, and incapable of being stirred by the probang; and I think I may add, that this opinion has from Mr. Cheetham's case received additional proba- bility.



	257

SECTION X. DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. GORGED STOMACH. GASTRITIS AND POISONS. [Commonly called Stomach Staggers."] BOTS. TYMPANITIC STOMACH. GASTRIC CONCRETIONS. RUPTURE. GASTRIC POLYPUS. INDIGESTION. PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. Plain and simple, and little varied, as the diet of the horse is, even in his domesticated state, one would think that his stomach could hardly experience disorder; and, in point of fact, from the quality of his food, in our country at least, it rarely does. But the stomach is liable to abuse from the quantity of aliment introduced : the domiciled animal being, so far, very much under the will and caprice of his master. The stomach of the horse, in comparison with the bulk of other viscera, and that of his body altogether, is remarkably small; the principal design of which appears to be, that it might not be capable of containing such a volume of ali- mentary matter as would, by its pressure against the dia- phragm, prove an impediment to respiration, and thus render the animal either short-breathed, or physically inca- pacitated from sustaining exertion on a full stomach. The late Professor Coleman was wont, with truth, to observe, that the horse is the only animal that can or will exert himself after a full meal: the dog that has been just fed will not hunt; a man is indisposed for work after dinner; but as for the horse, he often appears livelier after having consumed a quantity of food than he was before; and, whether he be in reality in a better or worse condition for work, leaves his stable not only with willingness, but even with alacrity and cheerfulness. One apparent, if not the principal, reason for which is, I repeat, that he possesses a small stomach. Since, then, the horse's stomach contains less, it is only II. 17

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		258 DISEASES Or THE STOMACH. reasonable to suppose that it will require to be filled oftener, than the stomach of other animals. If a dog be fed once, or at most twice, within the twenty-four hours, he thrives and is satisfied. But a horse is not satisfied, nor will he thrive and do well, unless he be feeding three parts of his time. A horse at grass is observed constantly grazing : the cow and the sheep, at intervals, lie down for hours together to rumi- nate ; but the horse, not a ruminating animal, seldom, if ever, is seen lying, he is almost always pasturing: not ceasing when he has filled his stomach, like a man or a dog, but continuing to feed all day long. In the stable it is usual to feed a horse three or four times a day with corn, and twice or thrice with hay or rack-meat: the corn he speedily consumes, but the hay occupies him many hours; and, unless he have sufficient to engage most of his time, he is very likely to set about eating his litter. For, however nutritious his food may be, we learn by experience that quality will not prove a substitute for quantity. By the laws of physiology, we cannot on a sudden change the natural habits of an animal, or even of any one of his constituent organs, for fresh ones, without the risk of en- tailing disease on that animal or organ: although we may, by degrees, introduce alterations which become so confirmed by time and usage as in their turn to constitute in effect the ordinary and natural habits. " Habit is second nature," and long continued, will usurp the place of nature itself; on which principle alone can we account for the general healthiness of the horse's stomach, knowing, as we do, how much his natural habits are altered by art. How often do we see horses�hunters especially�taken to work at eight or nine o'clock in the morning, and not returned to their stables before five, six, or seven o'clock at night; and yet how rarely is it that we hear of ill consequences from all this. I believe, myself, that well-bred horses will endure long fasting and subsequent repletion with more impunity than coarse-bred ones and cart-horses: at least, many in- stances have come to my knowledge of stomach-staggers occurring in the latter, but very few in the former.



	259

GORGED STOMACH : Usually denominated Stomach Staggers. By "gorged" is meant that state of excessive plentitude and distension in which the stomach loses all power of contract- ing upon its contents. We have no evidence that the sto- mach sustains any positive or direct harm from long fasting; but from subsequent and sudden repletion it is liable to be put into a condition of the greatest danger: on which account it behoves us to be cautious how we feed horses who have gone long without food, and have returned home with ravenous appetites. Instead of filling their mangers with corn and chaff, and other provender capable of being bolted whole, we should give them but a very moderate allowance of manger-meat, and rather endeavour to appease their sharpened appetites by hay and other food which requires a degree of mastication, so as to afford the stomach time for performing its duty in digestion, and of ridding itself of part of its contents before sufficient aliment be swallowed to dis- tend it beyond its powers. For, as Gibson has truly enough observed, if a man over-fills his stomach, he has a chance of relieving himself by vomiting, and so " getting rid of his enemy:" an alternative more prompt and facile still in a dog; but as for a horse, who has " no natural disposition to vomit, the only chance he has of relief is " passage down- ward." An instructive account of the effects of fasting and subsequent repletion used to be given by Professor Coleman in his lectures. The Professor was consulted about some horses, among whom had occurred a strange and unaccountable fatality. On inquiry, he found that the custom of the establishment was, to keep their horses out at work for ten hours together without food, and to feed them in abundance on their re- turn home. The source of the evil at once became evident. The Professor ordered, for the time to come, that the horses be fed once in the course of the time they were out, by means of nose-bags; and the fresh practice immediately put to flight a disease which had proved the causeof death of several of them.

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		260 DISEASES OF THE STOMACH. The same disease has often made its appearance in brew- eries where horses were in the habit of being kept out many hours without food, and on return to their stables too abun- dantly supplied with corn and chaff, or roots, or other man- ger-meat. Wagon and cart-horses are, unless well looked after by their proprietors, apt to become, out of mistaken kind- ness, stuffed, even to death, by their men. " Wagoners," says Mr. Tombs, V.S., Stratford-on-Avon, " are so scep- tical and profoundly ignorant, that they think, unless a horse's bowels be filled out so as to be on a level with his hip bones, they have a mean appearance, and are not capa- ble of a hard day's work. No persuasion can root out the strong prejudices of wagoners in regard to feeding horses." [' Veterinarian/ vol. xxv, p. 437.] The conductors of such establishments, however, are grow^rn wiser in this respect. Nowadays, it is seldom we see drays or wagons going out without carrying with them feeds for their horses. Again, such cases are of most rare occurrence in the army. Why are they so ? Simply because the cavalry feed their horses in stables, four times a day; and when in the field are always furnished with nose-bags or small corn sacks; which, in fact, constitute part of a dragoon's kit. Mr, Kent, V.S., Bristol, remarks in regard to this dis- ease�" From what I have seen, I am of opinion that, in those districts where farm-horses are kept on vetches during summer, more horses die during July and August from stomach staggers and inflammation of the bowels than during the other ten months of the year."¹ Symptoms.�A stomach simply surcharged with food, without any accompanying tympanitic distension, does not appear to occasion local pain, but to operate rather that kind of influence upon the brain which gives rise to symp- toms, not stomachic, but cerebral: hence the analogy be- tween this disease and staggers, and hence the appellation for it of "stomach staggers." The unnaturally filled sto- mach produces, for the first time, a sense of satiety : the horse grows heavy and drowsy, reposes his head upon the manger, In a 'Case of Stomach Staggers,' in the 'Veterinarian,' vol. xiv, p. 670.



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		GORGED STOMACH, Oil STOMACH STAGGERS. 261 falls asleep, and makes a stertorous noise. All at once he rouses from his lethargy, and violently thrusts his head against the rack or wall of the stable, or any thing, in fact, that happens to oppose him, owing, seemingly, to some strange sensation felt in his head, and in this posture pawswith his fore feet, or performs the same action with them as he would were he actually trotting: evidently all the while unconscious of what he is about. His eye, which at first was full of drow- siness, now acquires a wild unmeaning stare, or has already become dilated and insensible to light. The respiration is tardy and oppressed; the pulse slow and sluggish. The excretions commonly diminished. The bowels are consti- pated. Cases there are in which the animal experiences a good deal of uneasiness, and even pain. The horse, in his gait, reels or swings about, and either manifests extreme heaviness and dejection, or exhibits symptoms of pain, with which some- times he is seized with purgation, as though he had got rid of his distension of stomach, and had become seized with gastric irritation. The Diagnosis must be carefully sought after by making every inquiry into the history of the case: knowing that similar symptoms may proceed from an affection of the brain itself, it is only in this manner that we are likely to fix upon the true seat of disease. The circumstance of the horse having gone long without food and afterwards re- ceiving an abundant supply; or of his being so situated that he has had an opportunity of glutting himself, and, being a voracious feeder, would be sure to do it, would constitute a tolerably unerring director to the stomach in forming a cor- rect diagnosis. The Prognosis offers but little hope. Unless we can hit upon, and put into immediate practice, some operation for relieving the stomach of its burthen, fermentation will take place, gaseous distension follow, and rupture be likely to terminate the case. The Treatment must, therefore, rest upon the means we possess or can devise of relieving the stomach. Can we vomit



		262 DISEASES OP THE STOMACH. the horse ? Not, I am afraid, with any certainty or effect. The stomach of the horse has been known to relieve itself in this way; but then its contents have been thrown into the chambers of the nose as well as mouth, and so endan- gered life by suffocation. There is, however, yet another mode of attempting to accomplish the same end, and that is, by endeavouring to pass a hollow elastic tube down the oesophagus, into the stomach, and through it, by means of the stomach-pump, injecting tepid water. The best medi- cine to administer seems to be aloes in solution. The decoct, aloes, in combination with aether, is a good formula providing it be given in such a full dose as will not fail, should time be allowed it, to produce a cathartic effect. The state of the brain may render it advisable to draw blood; while we shall assist the bowels in unloading themselves by the administration of copious and stimulating clysters. A case is given in 'The Veterinarian/ vol. xxi, wherein the fumes of aether were inhaled with seeming benefit. In the absence of any apparatus for the purpose, a linen bag was procured with a slip-knot around its aperture, by which it might be closely fitted to the muzzle; and in this was placed a large sponge, within a wooden bowl, upon which aether was poured in sufficient quantity to saturate it. It was precisely ten o'clock when the animal's head was en- veloped around the muzzle in the aether bag; at a quarter past ten, both motion and sensibility had become momentarily annihilated : the animal fell at once upon all four legs, and sunk to the ground (to appearance) a lifeless mass. The aether was administered four times afterwards, and the animal in the end recovered. TYMPANITIC STOMACH. This is a disease in which the stomach or intestines, or both, become highly distended with air; or, at least, in which gas, in addition to any alimentary matters they may contain, is the principal cause of the distension. In cows, this inflated condition of the rumen or paunch it is which con-