130 Vctermary Medicine. 



Postmortem Appearances. If the animal has died suffocated, the 

 lungs and right side of the heart will be gorged with blood ; if in 

 a stupor (coma), attendant on brain poisoning with venous blood, 

 the veins will be specially engorged. The mucous membrane of 

 the larj'nx has a more vivid arborescent redness than in ordi- 

 nary laryngitis but the special feature is the presence of false 

 membranes. These layers of exuded material are almost confined 

 to the air passages. They may extend to the soft palate and nose 

 in an upward direction and to the trachea and bronchial tubes in a 

 downward, but they rarely exist in the mouth, pharnyx, or gullet 

 like the false membranes of diphtheria. 



Characters of the false membranes. These are gra)' or yellow- 

 ish white, though they may be reddened in patches or streaks. 

 They vary in consistency from that of glairy mucus to a firm layer 

 as of dense fibrine, and become more adherent as they are of old- 

 er standing. Sometimes they are partially detached, the free end 

 of the shreds floating in the larynx. The deep or attached sur- 

 face presents redness in points, in streaks, or as ramifications very 

 visible if the membrane is held up between the eye and the light. 

 They vary in thickness from half to a line. Delafond has found 

 these membranes in the lower animals to be mostly formed of fi- 

 brine, with a little albumen, and traces of alkaline and earthy 

 salts. 



Trcatinent. This must be prompt and energetic. Wet cloths 

 as hot as the hands can bear, wrapped around the throat and neck, 

 and replaced as they cool, will usuall}^ arrest the spasm. If this 

 fails ether or chloroform by inhalation or chloral hydrate by in- 

 jection may be employed with caution. The action of the bowels 

 must be secured by salines (sulphate of soda yi to i lb) or oil 

 (linseed oil Yz to i pint) and injections of warm water. Sulphate 

 of soda should be thereafter given in half ounce doses twice daily, 

 or nitrate or acetate of potass may be substituted. They are 

 advantageously given in linseed decoction and may be combined 

 with laudanum, (>^ ounce), belladonna, or other agent to check 

 the spasms. 



A blister (mustard poultice) should be applied at first either to 

 the throat or breast, the windpipe being left untouched lest 

 tracheotomy .should be required. Similar applications to the legs 

 are useful. 



