190 
CASES OF STRONGLES WITHIN THE ARTERIES 
OF YEARLING COLTS. 
By G. J. Mather, M.R.C.V.S., Doncaster. 
About twelve months since when practising in the South 
the following cases came under my notice, and never having 
read in any of our veterinary works, or heard mention made 
of such a disease (excepting that veterinary surgeons had 
occasionally met with it), I thought perhaps you might deem 
the following particulars not unworthy of a place in the 
Veterinarian . It was thus only by chance that I was 
enabled to learn the nature of the complaint the animals were 
labouring under, and that in the following manner:- — The 
subjects of the disease w T ere blood foals, varying in age from 
7 to 10 months, and one of them having been found dead in 
the field, I was sent for to make a post-mortem examination, 
it being suspected that the animal had been poisoned. 
On examining the foal previously to opening it, I found 
the body to be very much emaciated, and that the abdomen 
was greatly enlarged. On percussion of the belly, I detected 
the presence of a small quantity of gas, mingled with a fluid, 
which I concluded was of a serous nature. From this circum- 
stance I came to the conclusion, that the animal had died 
from ascites, but on opening it I found the abdomen to 
contain quite a gallon of pure blood. On removing the 
viscera, I at once saw that the haemorrhage had come from a 
rupture of the posterior aorta, just in front of the renal 
arteries. I dissected out the vessel to nearly its whole length; 
and on examining it, I thought, at first, that simple aneurism 
existed; but on cutting into the dilated portion near to the 
rupture, I found, much to my surprise, that the vessel was 
completely choked with myriads of small worms similar 
in appearance to the filaria which we find in the bron- 
chial tubes of calves suffering from special bronchitis or 
ee husk/’ 
The internal coat of the vessel was considerably thickened; 
in fact, it appeared to be lined with a false membrane, 
which no doubt had been caused by the irritation set up 
by these creatures. In all the arteries given off from the 
main trunk, were more or less of these parasites. 
About a fortnight from the time of being called to this 
case, I was sent for to see another of these foals, which, the 
man informed me, had been found down and unable to rise. 
On examining it, I observed that the pulse was nearly imper- 
