DISEASES OF RESPIRATORY PASSAGES AND ORGANS. $1 
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. 
Trcatment.—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. J allude to the operation 
of tracheotomy, which consists ef 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 horse, whether I have a tube by me or not. Very little 
pain attends the cperation, and that only occurs when cutting 
through the skin; 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 precious moments in the use of outward applications. 
The following case, reported by J. B. Dozgson, V.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. 
Upvn entering the stable, the animal presented the followiag 
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 musclea 
of the glottis, [ applied stimulants, and crdered constant fomen- 
tations to the larynx, and left .im with directions tn be closely 
