CONTRIBUTIONS TO ZOOLOGICAL PATHOLOGY. 409 
a relief in pressing and rubbing bis aching ear against any part of 
his master’s body. Under other circumstances he presses it and 
harrows it against the ground, so as to obtain a slight relief, and 
then with an instinctive feeling he flaps his ears, and shakes his 
head rapidly and repeatedly, so as to keep up the pleasurable relief 
he thus obtains. Should the symptoms be not so severe as those 
which I have now mentioned, the animal may still be suspected, at 
a glance, to be labouring under acute disease of the ear, by his 
running about with little intermission, his mouth open, and tongue 
protruded and panting, and, with a stupid sensibility, shaking 
his head, and pointing the affected ear to the ground. These 
symptoms, however, are most commonly allowed to pass unheeded, 
and in a few days a partial relief is obtained to the animal by the 
sudden and profuse discharge of a quantity of foetid pus. From 
this time the general and constitutional symptoms disappear, and 
those indicative of the local affection are alone predominant. The 
local discharge of pus, or pus and blood, becomes daily more and 
more fetid, in consequence of the extension of the disease to the 
bony tissue of the meatus, and the poor animal is thrust aside as 
an object of loathing and disgust. Should the dog, in the earlier 
stage of the disease, be muzzled and cast, and an inspection of 
the meatus be had recourse to, then there will either be found a 
phlegmonous abscess of the cellulo-fibrous structure of the meatus, 
circumscribed dermo-periostitis of the inner part of the tube, with 
caries of the osseous portion, or internal muco-tympanitis, with per- 
foration of the membrana tympani, and evacuation of the matter 
along the external canal. 
In that form of the disease to which I especially refer, where a 
polypoid excrescence follows and accompanies the ulceration or 
caries, if a period of three weeks or a month be permitted to elapse 
between the first exhibition of the discharge and the examination 
of the meatus, it may be found that the vegetation has attained a 
considerable size, and the discharge has become more and more pro- 
fuse and bloody. The extent of bloody discharge and its fcetidity 
will much depend on the nature of the tumour, and the original 
tissue of the meatus that may be affected. If there is much blood 
mixed up with the discharge, then in all likelihood there will exist 
a soft and vascular polypus, produced from the more vital fibro- 
cartilaginous structures of the meatus; and should the smell be 
excessive, and the discharge little tinged with blood, then the ori- 
ginal disease will be found to exist in the osseous portion of the 
tube, and the polypus, if it does exist, will be of the chrondromat- 
ous or cartilaginous kind. 
In the treatment of these varieties of polypi, it will be absolutely 
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