63 DISEASES OF THE AIR-PASSAGES. 



arise from its being regarded as an eyesore. The first case 

 I ever saw occurred in the year 1822. The tumour was 

 about the size of a hen's egg ; but I remember my father 

 telling me at the time that he had seen one before, in which 

 it was much larger. A case occurred in my present regi- 

 ment so late as September, 184i. The horse, the subject 

 of it, named from the man of whom he was purchased, 

 ' Dash,' was brought to me for having experienced a '' fit 

 of choking." My assistant at the moment gave him a few 

 hornsful of tepid water, and the fit passed ofi". As I was 

 feeling his throat, however, my attention became arrested by 

 a fulness on the ofip-side, below the larynx, which I at first 

 thought might serve to account for his choking fit. Exami- 

 ning the tumefaction further, however, convinced me that 

 it was an enlargement of the right lobe of the thymus gland 

 — a bronchocele in fact; though it did not appear to me to have 

 anything to do with the choking. By rubbing the swelling 

 daily for the space of six weeks with the compound iodine 

 ointment, made as under, the swelling subsided, and the 

 horse returned to his duty. 



Treatment. — Should the tumour, on account of its 

 volume, become the subject of medical treatment, I would 

 recommend a trial of iodine. Supposing the case be re- 

 cent, it might, in the first instance, be advisable to give a 

 brisk purge; after which I would administer, daily, a ball 

 composed of a drachm — which may be increased to two 

 drachms — of iodide of potassium, and, at the same time, rub 

 into the swelling as much of the following simple ointment 

 as is equal in bulk to a small walnut, or, as above, with the 

 compound ointment : — 



R Potassii lodid., 5ij ; 

 Adipis, 3J. M. 



Which is rendered compound by the addition of 3J of iodine. 

 Should the case be a chronic one, and the tumour in con- 

 sequence of its duration have become firm and hard in its 

 feel, and the iodine fail to influence it, I would apply strong 

 blisters upon it, or, as an ultimate resource, pass a seton 

 over or even through it. 



