84 KENNEL DISEASES. 
quence of the distress, deprivation of food and drink, etc., general depression 
and weakness are steadily increasing. 
Anything in the throat can usually be felt inside or on the outside ; obstruc- 
tions can also generally be made out in the neck, unless they are quite low down 
in the passage and near the stomach. 
He who examines the inside of the throat should do so cautiously, lest he 
push the troublesome substance deeper into the passage; whereas not being 
firmly fixed, it might have been possible to easily remove it by way of the mouth. 
If, however, it be a large piece of meat or something equally as soft, or it cannot 
be reached and pulled out, it should be, if possible, pushed downward into the 
stomach. 
When it is found impossible to dislodge a foreign body upwards by means of 
the fingers or forceps, it is generally advisable to produce violent vomiting ; and 
if an emetic cannot be administered, a dose of apomorphia might be given sub- 
cutaneously, as recommended in cases of poisoning. 
Vomiting being ineffectual, and satisfied that its removal upwards is not pos- 
sible, efforts should be made to push the obstruction downward into the stomach. 
For this purpose the best means for a layman to employ is a flexible catheter or 
piece of rubber tubing of about the same diameter; for with it no harm can be 
done, whereas to use anything stiffer might be dangerous. While passing it, the 
mouth should be held wide open and the head extended. The instrument, having 
first been well lubricated with fresh lard, vaselin, or sweet oil, while being intro- 
duced should be kept against the roof of the mouth and back wall of the throat, 
that it may clear the larynx, which lies in front. The obstruction reached, if a 
tube is employed, it will be advisable to pass down through it a small quantity 
of sweet oil ; and then firm pressure should be kept up until the substance yields, 
or the fact is clear that it is too firmly impacted to be moved. 
When an obstruction can neither be dislodged upward nor downward, noth- 
ing remains but the operation known as cesophagotomy; which consists of cut- 
ting through the neck directly over the foreign body, and removing it by way of 
the incision. To a surgeon this would prove a very easy operation. He would 
not get union by first intention, therefore it would be useless to try for it; and it 
were best to keep the outer wound open for about a day. The patient should be 
deprived of food for at least forty hours. 
PHARYNGITIS. 
Only rarely is the pharynx the seat of disease, and then very generally the 
trouble is inflammation of the mucous membrane that lines it, known as pharyn- 
gitis. This affection is quite invariably of acute character; it is also in most 
