126 MALIG^JSANT TUMOUES. 



SYMPTOMS. — In the only case I Kave met with in the horse, 

 the tongue, on the first day that I saw the animal, was swollen to 

 at least four times its thickness in health ; was as hard to the 

 touch as a piece of cartilage ; and had lost all its power of motion, 

 except a slight backward ajid forward movement. The end of the 

 tongue had a mottled appearance, being covered partly with purple 

 patches of congestion ; partly with yellow patches. Further back, 

 there were two deep grooves, one on each side, corresponding in 

 size to the back teeth, which had evidently excavated them, during 

 the backward and forward movements of the hard and greatly 

 swollen tongue. Connecting the front portions of these grooves 

 was a transverse furrow, which was so deep (at least, two inches) 

 that I had to be very careful in manipulating the free end of the 

 tongue, lest I might detach it from the fixed portion. This 

 transverse groove contained a comparatively large quantity of 

 hard yellow nodules (Fig. 45) of fibrous tissue. The wounded 

 surface of the tongue was of a very dark red, almost black colour, 

 and showed no granulations or any other signs of the formation of 

 pus. The horse, a handsome three-year-old thoroughbred entire, 

 was able, with the greatest difficulty, to eat only a very small 

 amount of grass ; for he " quidded " by far the greater proportion 

 of the grass which he took into his mouth. He was quite unable 

 to eat hay or oats, and there was a constant and copious discharge 

 of saliva from his lips. Consequently, he was in terribly bad 

 condition, and appeared to be on the point of dying of starvation. 

 The tongue was extremely painful to the touch ; apparently 

 because the nerves of the part, on majiipulation, became pressed 

 against the hard fibrous nodules which were embedded in the 

 tongue and which I shall allude to more fully further on. The 

 mouth exhaled a stinking odour. 



Friedberger and Frohner state fJiat "when the tongue is affected, 

 prehension and mastication are impeded. The organ is swollen, 

 painful to the touch, and there is an abundant flow of saliva." 

 These writers mpntion that although the tumours (which vary in 

 size from a pin's head to a broad bean) are generally soft, they 

 are sometimes of a fibrous consistency and of a greyish white 

 colour ; resembling, in fact, those of the case I treated. Crook- 

 shank states that actinomycosis in the tongue appears " m.ost 

 commonly in the form of nodules or wart-like patches under the 

 mucous membrane 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 lanque de 

 hois, is due to inflammation of the substance of the tongue, set 

 up by the presence of the fungus. The tumours, wherever they 



