UNUSUALLY SEVERE ATTACK OF DIFFICULTY OF 
SWALLOWING IN A COW. 
Bij Mr. J. H. Shenton. 
I TAKE the liberty of forwarding to you the following case. I 
am induced to send it you, because 1 have not lately seen a similar 
one recorded; but it is a simple and very common case, and often 
shews the folly and bad policy of delaying to call in medical aid 
as soon after an accident has happened, or a disease has set in, as 
possible. 
On Sunday the 12th of January, I was called upon professionally 
to attend a cow belonging to a very parsimonious sort of person. 
The servant who came informed me that she had been ill, and (to 
use his own words) plagued with sickness since the Tuesday be- 
fore — that she would eat with greediness any thing they gave her, 
but whenever she swallowed hay or turnips she was immediately 
very sick, and with much trouble would throw it all up again. 
When, however, she ate any sloppy bran mash, or gruel, she did 
not shew the same symptoms. 
When I arrived, 1 found that what the servant had told me was 
true, for the cow was in a most pitiable state. She was a well bred 
and well made young beast, but brought down to the lowest pos- 
sible state of condition. 
The pulse was low and weak, the eyes dull and sunken, and the 
breathing accelerated. She was continually voiding small quan- 
tities of urine and fseces — had a staring coat — arched back — hide- 
bound — extremities cold — and continual discharge of frothy saliva 
from the mouth. 
The poor animal had been in this miserable state for five or six 
days, and the owner, in his mistaken notion of saving, had de- 
layed to call in proper aid day after day, until the cow could 
scarcely stand. When I entered the shippen in which she was, I 
found her on her knees, apparently endeavouring to vomit up 
some obstructing body from the oesophagus. It was truly distress- 
ing to witness the painful state into which the poor animal was 
thrown. 
Whenever she swallowed any solid food she could not be easy 
until it was returned, although she could without pain or other 
hinderance eat and swallow any thing sloppy, such as bran mash, 
gruel, &c. 
After patiently watching the various symptoms some time, it 
occurred to me that there must be some foreign and obstructing 
body, of a broad and flat form, wedged edgeways, as it were, at the 
