558 MALIGNANT SORE THROAT. 



course, the patient rarely surviving the third day, the entire system 

 from the first sympathising, as is shown by the rapidity (100 per 

 minute) of the pulse, and the general strength of the body failing. At 

 first the salivary glands take to swell, and are extremely painful to the 

 touch. Then the throat generally commences swelling, and becomes 

 sore, so much so, as the tumefaction increases, as to make it so painful 

 to swallow that food and liquids too are refused by the animal. At 

 length the throat becomes prodigiously swollen, and difficulty of respi- 

 ration, with sonorous and distressing breathing, ensues, accompanied 

 with fetor, which, as the complaint advances, turns in some cases so 

 obnoxious, that before death it is stinking in the extreme. The mem- 

 brane of the nose is of a dark crimson colour. The countenance turns 

 doleful and sharp, and even haggard, and, with increase of all his 

 anxiety and distress, the poor animal dies a victim to a disease which 

 we appear to have no power even to arrest, much less to cure. 



" The appearances after death are larynx and pharynx in a state of 

 inflammation, ulcerated perhaps as well, and covered with putrid dis- 

 charges, root of the tongue ulcerated, considerable enlargement of the 

 salivary glands, and of the surrounding tissues also. Sometimes in- 

 flammation and effusion are likewise discoverable at the base of the 

 brain. 



" The disease is contagious : at least the following facts which Mr 

 Proctor received from ' good authority,' would lead us to believe so: 

 Two sturks were found dead in a field, or nearly so, with affections 

 of their throats. The butcher was sent for to dress their carcases. His 

 own horse partook of some grains mixed with some of the blood taken 

 from the beasts, and in less than twenty-four hours afterwards he died 

 from swelling of the throat, producing suffocation. A sow and nine 

 pigs ate of the blood and grains, and were soon afterwards seized with 

 throat affection, with sonorous breathing, of which some of them died. 

 The others, after much trouble, eventually recovered.' " 



My own experience of this disease is limited to three cases, 

 one of which I saw in London, and the other two in Scot- 

 land. The symptoms were the same as those mentioned by 

 Mr Proctor, but the apnoea was so urgent as to demand the 

 immediate performance of tracheotomy. 



Tracheotomy is an operation which may be required in all 



