258 THE PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 



from the reception of a wound penetrating the common 

 integument in front of the shoulder, or between the elbow 

 and shoulder, such as might be caused by an animal staking 

 himself. The injury may be very slight, so slight in fact 

 as to escape notice, but on walking, or travelling in any 

 way, the air passes in through the w^ound by a sort of 

 pumping motion, gaining access to the areolar tissue, and 

 causes the neck and body to puff up, the swelling in some 

 cases being enormous, and, if the animal be kept travelling, 

 often increases to such an extent as to seriously endanger 

 life by suffocation. Such a swelling may easily be dis- 

 tinguished from that arising from inflammation, etc., by its 

 greater elasticity, and from the fact that it gives out a 

 crackling sound on passing the hand over it. I have 

 observed a similar condition in the ox, produced by the 

 entrance of air through a small open wound in the dew-lap. 

 Treatment. — Immediately on discovering such a wound, it 

 should be closed by means of sutures, and the animal kept 

 quiet for a day or two, until the healing process has 

 sufficiently advanced to prevent the entrance of air into the 

 areolar tissue. In cases M'here the presence of the wound 

 has escaped notice, and the animal exercised until the 

 swelling of the neck and body previously described takes 

 place, the animal should be kept perfectly quiet, and if 

 the swelling is not excessive it will not be necessary to 

 resort to any active measures to remove it ; simply allow 

 the animal to stand quietly, and the air contained within 

 the areolar tissue will be removed by absorption in twenty- 

 four hours or so. Its removal may be hastened by the use 

 of fomentations, and the application of slight pressure 

 to the parts. In certain parts it is by no means bad 

 practice to make a few incisions to favour the escape of 

 the air, and such a procedure becomes absolutely necessary 

 in such cases as present very urgent symptoms, that is, in 



