36 



DISEASES OF THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



abscess of lymphatic ganglions. A sudden and considerable accel- 

 eration of the pulse is an unfavorable prognostic symptom ; 80 

 pulsations per minute are a serious symptom in the horse, while 

 high temperatures are perfectly compatible with a care. We find 

 frequently an irregular distribution of temperature on the super- 

 ficial regions ; the ears and other extremities are cold. 



We have sometimes observed a sudden urticarial eruption, dis- 

 appearing rapidly, and appearing again at some later time. This 

 eruption, only noticed in infectious pharyngitis, is without doubt 

 a vaso-nervous or embolic exanthema, similar to that occurring 

 frequently in strangles. 



Course. In the majority of cases, the course of pharyngitis is 

 that of a simple acute disease ; complications, however, may alter 

 it. Chronic pharyngitis is almost always the result of slight irrita- 

 tions acting persistently (tumors, gad-fly larvse, etc.). The most 

 frequent termination in all cases of simple catarrhal angina is 

 recovery in about eight or ten days. 



When there are abscess formations in the lymphatic ganglions 

 and submucous connective tissue, breathing becomes painful, fever 

 increases, and a cure is often delayed from four to five weeks, 

 whenever oedema of the glottis does not interfere to produce death 

 by asphyxia. These abscesses very seldom open from the outside, 

 and still more rarely from within and without at the same time, but 

 almost always inside of the pharynx, through a limited gangrene 

 of the mucous membrane. 



Romant has, however, observed a complete pharyngeal fistula 

 in the colt. We have seen two similar fistulse in the horse. One 

 of them was produced by spontaneous bursting of an abscess located 

 at a depth of about 10 cm. in the pharyngeal cavity, and which 

 had been punctured with a lancet afterwards. In the other case 

 the fistula was found after the cure; it opened into the inter- 

 maxillary space ; liquids could be injected into the buccal and 

 pharyngeal cavities through its ramified canal. 



When tissues are thus dissected and perforated by suppuration, 

 they may possibly mortify ; putrid and septic poisonings are then 

 to be feared. These complications are manifested by a very high 

 temperature, by a gangrenous odor escaping from the nose and 

 mouth, and often also by the presence of decomposed tissue in the 

 discharge. Sometimes death happens after the opening of an 

 abscess and the escape of the pus into the bronchial tubes. 



