LAETNGITIS. 247 



Young foals and horses, from two to four years of age, are 

 far more subject to the disease than aged horses. 



During the existence of the malady, the patient is liable to 

 be attacked with Spasm of the Larynx. It is also liable to 

 terminate in Eoariug, Scarlatina, and Purpura Haemorrhagica. 



Symptoms. — The commencement of the disease is some, 

 times rapid — at other times slow ; and, for a period, its early 

 symptoms are perhaps uncertain. It usually commences, how- 

 ever, by the animal being dull, and affected with a cough, which 

 is short and spasmodic in character. As the malady goes on, 

 the symptoms become more clearly marked. The breathing is 

 accompanied with a rough, snoring kind of noise ; swallowing 

 is performed with difficulty ; the act of swallowing fluid is 

 attended with a gulping sound, and part of the liquid generally 

 escapes from the nostrils; and sometimes it brings with it 

 either a quantity of glairy mucus or purulent matter. Quan- 

 tities of half-masticated food are also occasionally returned in 

 the same direction. 



The state of the pulse depends upon the severity of the 

 attack ; it may vary from 50 to 80 beats per minute, and the 

 respirations from 14 to 20. 



The neck, over the region of the larynx, becomes swollen ; 

 and if the larynx be even slightly pressed upon, the patient will 

 shrink from the touch with alarm. 



As the disease increases in severity, the breathing becomes 

 more difficult ; the cough more spasmodic and hacking in 

 character ; the snoring sound (accompanying the breathing) 

 more loud and harsh. At this stage, a copious issue of purulent 

 matter from the nostrils will perhaps supervene ; and the more 

 violent and alarming symptoms of the case may either disap- 

 pear or become greatly modified. 



