STENOSIS AND COMPRESSION OF THE OESOPHAGUS. 431 



(4.) STENOSIS AND COMPRESSION OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 



Stenosis of the oesophagus may be congenital or it may result 

 from chronic inflammation of its wall. Stricture or cicatricial stenosis 

 is usually accompanied by dilatation. Andersen relates that a horse 

 had for four months repeatedly suffered from impaction of the 

 oesophagus, and on post-mortem showed a ring-like contraction, 

 about 8 inches below the pharynx ; the portion above this point 

 was widened (ectastic). Kohne describes as stricture what appears 

 to have been a diverticulum. 



A similar case is described by Friedenreich ; a horse, after 

 suffering for a long time from difficulty in swallowing, finally died 

 from hunger, and on post-mortem a duplication of the mucous 

 membrane was discovered arising from the upper pharyngeal wall, 

 reducing to one-third the dimensions of the pharynx. The mucous 

 membrane did not appear diseased. 



Compression of the oesophagus is caused by tumours in the thorax, 

 or by swelling of the bronchial lymphatic glands (compression 

 stenosis). Johne and others report such cases in oxen, in which 

 tuberculous bronchial glands compressed the oesophagus, and caused 

 difficulty in swallowing and disturbance of nutrition. Animals are 

 less frequently affected than men by contraction of the mucous 

 membrane, the swallowing of irritants, or by narrowing of the lumen 

 of the tube by tumours or parasites like spiroptera sanguinolenta, 

 constituting obturation stenosis. These conditions can seldom be 

 diagnosed with certainty. Their chronic course distinguishes them 

 from the disturbances produced by foreign bodies or by diverticula 

 of the oesophagus. Cattle often show chronic tympanites, and 

 where this is accompanied by coughing and wasting, suspicion of 

 tuberculosis must arise. 



There is seldom opportunity for treatment, the condition in most 

 cases being only definitely recognised on post-mortem examination. 



(5.) PARALYSIS OF THE PHARYNX AND (ESOPHAGUS. 



The muscles of the pharynx and the upper two-thirds of the 

 oesophagus receive their motor supply from the 9th and 10th cranial 

 nerves, the last third of the oesophagus being supplied by the vagus. 

 Paralysis of these nerves may induce functional disturbance. Records 

 are numerous of so-called paralysis of the oesophagus, but the 

 descriptions are not always reliable or complete, and some of the 

 cases depend not so much on paralysis as on structural changes or 



