316 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



pond and let him swill at pleasure. The cough returns, the 

 flanks heave, and broken wind reveals itself by all its 

 ordinary symptoms. 



BRONCHOCELE. 



Bronchocele is an enlargement of the thyroid gland in 

 the throat — in the human subject, goitre — and is a dis- 

 order of unknown origin. It is not very serious beyond 

 mechanical inconvenience and unsightliness. The gland in 

 its normal state is about half the size of a pigeon's egg ; but 

 sometimes, without showing active disease, as large as a 

 hen's egg. It has, however, been known to grow so large 

 as to press upon the larynx. It is a well-established 

 observation that certain countries and localities are favour- 

 able to its production. In England, Derby and Nottingham 

 shires have obtained this repute ; on the Continent, Switzer- 

 land, the Tyrol, the valley of the Rhone, and others ; and 

 to an extent to lead us at once to the conclusion that 

 influence of soil, or climate, or both, must have much to do 

 with its production. Old medical writers ascribe its appear- 

 ance in particular persons to that convenient fons et origo, 

 " a scrofulous habit." Of late years the disease has been 

 thought to be hereditary ; and so strong has appeared 

 the evidence of this in dogs, that Mr. Youatt's forcible 

 expression on this point is : "I am quite assured that it is 

 hereditary." 



In horses we know nothing further about it than that a 

 tumour, seldom of any great magnitude, makes its appear- 

 ance in the throat, just below the part we grasp to excite 

 coughing, either directly in front or inclining to one side, 

 having a circular or an ovoid form, and feeling soft and 

 puffy, and movable, without any flinching or sensibility 

 being evinced by pressing or squeezing it, and without 

 being the occasion of the slightest inconvenience or dis- 

 paragement, save what may be considered to arise from its 

 being regarded as an eyesore. 



Treatr)ient — Should the tumour, on account of its 

 volume, become the subject of medical treatment, iodine is 

 our sheet-anchor. Supposing the case to be recent, it might, 

 in the first instance, be advisable to give a brisk purge ; 

 after which, administer daily a ball composed of a drachm 

 —which may be increased to two drachms — of iodide of 



