STRANGLES. 273 
cleansed, but this office must be tenderly performed; for the filth will 
do far less harm to the horse than the provocation of irritability. 
Gruel, repeatedly changed, should always be within easy reach of the 
mouth; the pail should be hung upon a hook, so that the head may 
not be necessarily raised to reach the nourishment. A little of the sed- 
iment, strained from the gruel, should be placed in the manger, as some 
quadrupeds will only eat; others will only drink; a third class will be 
content with such nourishment as they can suck up from the more solid 
form of slops; afourth may all but starve, yet no coaxing will induce 
the sufferers to look at aught but the dry, hard food, which they dare 
not swallow. Most, however, will feed on green-meat, and this should 
always be at hand. Should the animal become worse, tracheotomy may 
be necessitated. Then stout and treacle should be liberally horned 
down—half a pound of treacle being mingled with the quart of stout, 
and the whole mixed with a quart of good thick gruel. However, give 
at one time only so much as can be taken without distress being occa- 
sioned. 
Such cases, bad as they may appear, are not to be despaired of; nor 
are the tumors, on any account, to be opened before they have thoroughly 
maturated. Hasty incisions may throw the abscesses back upon the 
system. When that is the case, real danger is provoked; the horse sel- 
dom thrives afterward. 
In some instances the tumor will burst internally. It may find egress 
through the nostrils; but if it burst into the large guttural pouches of 
the animal, the pus may be there imprisoned until it becomes inspissated, 
and, by the motion of the jaws, kneaded into numerous distinct masses, 
resembling small sea-side pebbles. Such has been witnessed, but should 
hardly now occur; since Professor Varnell, of the Royal Veterinary 
College, has invented an instrument by means of which these cavities 
can be effectually injected, and even washed out. i 
Besides those varieties already mentioned, there is yet another form 
of strangles: that is, where no tumor appears beneath the jaws, but 
several form on other parts of the body. The greatest number of 
abscesses the author has heard of, being developed on one body, is seven. 
They generally contained about a pint of pus; and, if the direction 
given for the treatment of strangles be observed, the animal will usually 
recover upon these being opened. 
The great danger of strangles is in the disease fixing upon any inter- 
nal organ; the horse is of no use afterward. It sinks from bad to 
worse, till it resembles the illustration appended to “Chronic Indiges- 
tion.” The best thing which can happen in such a case is the death of 
the wretched creature. To prevent so lamentable a termination to a 
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