ACTINOMYCOSIS. 



127 



brane with a special tendency to ulcerate from the irritation of the 

 teeth." The characteristic hardness of the affected tongue, which 

 has caused the disease to be referred to in various countries as 

 " wooden tongue," Holzzunge, and langue de bois, is due to inflam- 

 mation of the substance of the tongue, set up by the presence of 

 the fungus. The tumours, wherever they may appear, may be hard, 

 as I have described, or soft, and may, like those of scirrhous cord, 

 degenerate, with the formation of pus, in which the fungus can be 

 found. 



TREATMENT.— The treatment which I successfully adopted was 

 as follows: — Learning that the animal had been getting J oz. of 

 iodide of potassium daily, and seeing that the amount had failed to 

 check the course of the disease, I beo^an bv crivino' 2 oz. of that druo; 

 daily in the drinking water ; and found after three days of this treat- 

 ment that the tongue had decreased in size, was softer to the touch, 



Fig. 45. — Nodule of actinomycosis 

 (actual size). 



and had lost its foetid smell ; and that the patient was able to eat 

 better. During the following 38 days, I gave the animal 52 oz. of 

 iodide of potassium, without producing any of the characteristic 

 signs of iodine-irritation in the system, such as running at the eyes 

 and nose, which are quickly apparent in man from an overdose of 

 this medicine. The only untoward effect produced in this case 

 by the immense doses which I was giving and which I varied ac- 

 cording to circumstances, was difficulty in staling. This complica- 

 tion was in no way serious, and soon passed off after the removal 

 of its exciting cause. Every day, after having thrown the horse, 

 I scraped with a finger nail all the exposed nodules I could reach, 

 and applied to the wounds in the tongue, at different times, tincture 

 of iodine and eucalyptus oil daily, and a solution of 20 grains of 

 chloride of zinc to the ounce of water, every second day. The Inst- 

 mentioned application I found to be by far the most effective of the 

 three. As long as the horse's tongue was so bad that he was unable 



