428 ECTASIA. DIVERTICULA, AND RUPTURES OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 



before its passage through the diaphragm. The condition had led t<> an 

 attack of mechanical pneumonia and death. 



Sometimes dilatations take a spindle form, sometimes they are 

 sharply defined. Where greatly developed, difficulty in swallowing 

 occurs, and wasting afterwards sets in. 



Diverticula are here taken to mean ruptures of the muscular 

 coat of the oesophagus, and passage of the lax but unruptured 

 mucosa through the opening. This has been described as cesophago- 

 cele, and is oftenest met with in horses and cattle. It sometimes 

 results from accident in passing the oesophageal sound or probang, 

 or it may follow greedy consumption of rough and prickly clover. 

 Such ruptures occur in the neck portion of the tube, frequently close 

 to its entrance into the chest, and occasionally near its termination. 



Both the muscular and mucous coats may become ruptured 

 at the same time, or the mucous coat may yield somewhat later than 

 the muscular. 



Fuchs discovered a dilatation of the oesophagus after death, where the 

 neck portion had a circumference of 9J inches, the thoracic portion of 

 12§ inches, and the portion in front of the diaphragm was distended to 

 20 J inches. Dr. S. describes a diverticulum in the horse formed in conse- 

 quence of the muscular coat being ruptured for a distance of 11 inches 

 in the thorax. The sac-like dilatation held five pints of water, and the 

 horse suffered from symptoms of broken wind. Schellehberg saw a similar 

 diverticulum in the dog, produced by a bite and subsequent abscess 

 formation. On post-mortem, six mouths later, a diverticulum was dis- 

 covered as large as a man's fist. It had resulted from cicatricial contraction. 



Of twenty-six cases collected by Rubeli, the diverticulum was, 

 in eleven, close to the diaphragm, in seven in the thoracic portion, 

 and in eight in the neck portion, usually in the lower part of it. r l ln- 

 anatomical disposition of the oesophagus in horses explains this 

 distribution. Illustrations of these several classes of cases are 

 recorded. 



(Inland relates that a horse which had suffered from colic, with severe 

 attacks of vomiting, was found to have the oesophagus raptured close 

 in front of its passage through the diaphragm. Leisering describes a 

 diverticulum in a horse which died from suffocation : 3 feet from the 

 pharynx the distended oesophagus has a circumference of about lb' inches. 

 8 inches lower the circumference was 12 inches, 13| inches higher it measured 

 12J inches ; close in front of the cardiac opening was a second diverticulum. 

 Griinwald saw a horse which died a day after suffering from a shivering 

 and "blowing" attack. The post-mortem discovered a quantity of 

 turbid fluid mixed with food in the thorax. The oesophagus was ruptured 

 for 4t\ inches close in front of the diaphragm, and in front of this again 

 was dilated for a distance of 16 inches, its walls being more than h inch 

 thick, and its circumference 6 inches. At the point of rupture the mucous 



