DEATH OF A PONY FROM A SPONGE. 
657 
well as he had done at any period of his illness. He was warm 
all over, and his pulse was not materially altered, but his breathing 
was heavy. I scarcely knew what to do with him, the symptoms 
of choking not being urgent, or whether I should introduce a larger 
probang, or give more oil and gruel. Not being inclined, however, 
to introduce the former, I was in the act of administering the latter, 
and while I was holding up his head and drenching him, he again 
commenced fighting with his fore feet, and ran about the stable 
making a shrieking noise. He presently, however, fell down, 
struggled violently for a little while, and died. 
He was immediately skinned, and in less than half an hour I 
made a post-mortem examination of him. I had him placed on his 
right side, and then carefully laid bare the whole length of the 
oesophagus, by first removing the muscles adjoining it down the 
neck, and then the ribs on the same side. In cutting off a portion 
of the left lung, close to the trachea, I saw something within, and, 
on careful examination, I found that it was A PIECE OF SPONGE. I 
then laid open the trachea, and found its inner membrane beauti- 
fully and highly injected, and as red as scarlet. The sponge was 
6J inches in length, and in some places would have been, when 
dry, 2 or 3 inches wide. It occupied the lower part of the trachea, 
and some of it was even drawn into the larger branches of the 
bronchial tubes. The sponge, had it been dry, would, I have no 
doubt, have distended the trachea, and, if fully saturated with 
water, would have filled a space double the caliber of the trachea. 
The parts surrounding the glossal opening and the epiglottis were 
considerably swollen and inflamed. 
On the outer surface of the oesophagus adjoining the trachea, and 
where the sponge lay, there were two spots of extravasated blood, 
each the size of a sixpence, also a small portion of lymph and 
serum. The lungs were not at all congested, but, on the contrary, 
of a pale and natural colour ; but there was a considerable quantity 
of frothy spume in the bronchial tubes, especially on one side of 
the thorax. 
Observations . — I consider this a very rare and extraordinary 
case, and, perhaps, the only one on record in any of our English 
works. 
There can be little doubt that after he had eaten his mash he 
picked up the sponge from out of the window where it had lain 
some days, and having chewed it for a time attempted to swallow 
it; in the endeavour to accomplish which the sponge became im- 
pacted in the superior part of the oesophagus, after having passed 
over the epiglottis. While there, it must have been drawn back 
into the lungs by some violent acts of inspiration, assisted, most 
probably, at the same time, by vomition. 
VOL. XVII. ‘ 4 s 
