PARALYSIS OF THE TONGUE. 263 



to have occasionally produced a kind of poisoning. Actinomycosis 

 may not only be checked but absolutely cured by deep scarification 

 and painting with iodine solution (Thomassen, Ostertag, and others). 

 Of 100 cases Strebel claims to have completely cured one-third and 

 to have so improved others that they could be successfully fattened ; 

 only 50 per cent, he regards as incurable. To these belong the 

 advanced cases, and those in which the root of the tongue is 

 principally involved. Where the point and middle alone are invaded, 

 the prognosis is much more favourable, for in these parts deep 

 incisions may be made without danger. 



Dressing with tincture of iodine may be carried out two or three 

 times a day after eating. Ostertag, however, assigns much importance 

 to careful application of the drug ; after laying open all swellings, 

 he applies the tincture personally, using a stiff brush. The appli- 

 cation is renewed once a week. Bass noted a relapse after iodine 

 treatment. The later observations of Thomassen, Nocard, Ostertag, 

 and others give a high value to the administration of iodide of 

 potassium internally, and the local use of tinct. iodi. Under any 

 circumstances it is better, when dealing with an infectious disease, 

 not to place too much reliance on complete or lasting recovery, and 

 as soon as sufficient improvement is declared to prepare the animal 

 for the butcher. Such animals fatten most readily on distillers' 

 and brewers' grains, which make only slight demands on their 

 masticating powers. 



PARALYSIS OF THE TONGUE (GLOSSOPLEOIA). 



Inflammatory processes may interfere with the movements of 

 the tongue ; but its paralysis depends on injury to the hypoglossal 

 nerve, which supplies with motor filaments the collective muscles 

 of the tongue, and most of those of the hyoid bone. 



Wounds, abscesses, or inflammatory processes may affect the 

 nerve at some point of its course, or at its origin on the inferior 

 surface of the medulla, and thus produce glossoplegia. Kater saw 

 one-sided paralysis occur in a foal which three months before had 

 been wounded in the throat with a knife. On the left side the 

 muscles of the tongue had so completely disappeared that at that 

 point the upper and lower coverings of mucous membrane were in 

 contact. In the case of a horse which had first suffered from left- 

 sided, and afterwards from general paralysis of the tongue, Hallander 

 discovered on the left side of the medulla a sarcoma which had 

 originated in the guttural pouch. This paralysis is also seen during 



