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DISEASES OF RESPIRATORY PASSAGES AND ORGANS. oi 



or sea, is suddenly seized with cramp, it is nothing more nor less 

 than spasm of the flexor muscles of his limbs. Sometimes, how 

 ever, the extensor muscles are affected. In either case, unless 

 assistance "be at hand, the person is apt to find a watery grave. 

 Cramp or spasm of the intestines is the same form of affection, 

 only it is confined to the muscular fibers of the intestines ; and 

 whenever it occurs in the limbs or intestines, it is always accom- 

 panied by excruciating pain and torment. 



Treatment. — As regards spasm of the muscles of the glottis, it is 

 very apt to prove fatal, either in consequence of lack of knowledge 

 of the proper mode of treatment, or in failing to apply the remedy 

 which the urgency of the case demands. I allude to the operation 

 of tracheotomy, which consists of making an incision into the 

 windpipe and inserting a tube into the same. A tube may not 

 always be at hand, but this must not deter us from operating ; for, 

 by some means or other, air must be admitted, even if it be neces- 

 sary to dissect out a piece of the trachea, which I always do in the 

 case of a horae, whether I have a tube by me or not. Very little 

 pain attends the operation, and that only occurs when cutting 

 through the »kin ; for the windpipe, being composed of cartilage, 

 is comparatively insensible. It may be policy, when the subject 

 is not in immediate peril of his life, to resort to some counter- 

 irritant and antispasmodic liniment (equal parts of spirits of 

 camphor and tincture of lobelia) ; but when the danger is immi- 

 nent, and the finger of Death is plainly on the patient, we only 

 waste p-ecious moments in the use of outward applications. 



The following case, reported by J. B. Dobson, Y. S., may pos- 

 sibly prove both interesting and instructive to some of our readers : 



" At night a messenger came, saying the horse was very ill. 

 Upon entering the stable, the animal presented the following 

 symptoms: He was stretched out his full length in the stable, 

 apparently in the agonies of suffocation ; and such was the difficulty 

 attending respiration that he positively screamed, in performing 

 the act, so as to be heard at some considerable distance. I had 

 not been with him many seconds, however, before he was slightly 

 relieved, and in about ten minutes the spasm passed off, leaving 

 him, witu the exception, of course, of great exhaustion, otherwise 

 •as well as ever. Viewing the case as one of spasm of the muscles 

 of the glottis, I applied stimulants, and crdered constant fomen- 

 tations to the larynx, and left .im with directions to be closely 



