504 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



rise to symptoms of an exhausting and threatening character, which we 

 have fully described under the head of " Hemorrhage ". 



Treatment. — Perfect quiet and a cold stable are the first requirements 

 in the treatment of epistaxis. In the choice of remedies the great object 

 will be to cause the blood-vessels to contract and to hasten the formation 

 of a clot of blood at the seat of rupture, and thus effect a stoppage of 

 the escapement. These indications are most likely to be met by irrigating 

 the face with ice-cold water from the poll downwards, or applying a bag of 

 powdered ice over the entire region of the nostrils. Should this fail to 

 meet the purpose, the injection of astringent solutions into the nostrils, 

 or the insufflation of fine astringent powders, may be resorted to. The 

 salts of iron, acetate of lead, or gallic or tannic acid will be found to 

 answer the purpose best. Plugging the bleeding nostril with cotton-wool 

 soaked with one or another of the astringent solutions referred to may be 

 tried in severe cases, but its adoption requires care. 



For internal remedies see " Hemorrhage ". 



Prevention. — Horses given to bleeding from the nose should not be 

 put to severe work, neither should they be highly fed, and it is most 

 desirable that food and water be given them two or, better, three hours 

 before going to work. With the object of imparting tone to the vessels a 

 dram of sulphate of iron should be given in the food twice daily for a fort- 

 night or three weeks now and again. 



PUS IN THE GUTTURAL POUCHES 



The guttural pouches (fig. 204) are two somewhat capacious cavities 

 situated between the base of the skull above and the pharynx and larynx 

 below. The inner walls of the sacs are in apposition with each other, while 

 their outer walls are for the most part covered with the parotid glands. 

 They communicate with the pharynx by two openings — the eustachian 

 tubes, and their function would appear to be in some way connected with 

 the sense of hearing, and at the same time to allow the free expansion 

 of the pharynx in the act of swallowing and of the larynx in breathing. 



They are lined by mucous membrane which is continuous with that 

 lining the throat. It occurs, therefore, that inflammatory affections of the 

 latter sometimes extend to the former, as is now and again the case in 

 strangles, influenza, and pharyngitis, with the result that one or both 

 guttural pouches become more or less distended with pus. 



Symptoms. ^ — Here there is a chronic discharge from one or both 

 nostrils, generally of an intermittent character, sometimes constant, but 

 always variable in amount. The flow of matter is greatly increased under 



