CHOKING IN THE HOUSE. 
253 
six pounds ; the liver was somewhat enlarged, but healthy in 
its structure ; the heart was slightly hypertrophied, but its 
inner membrane, in both ventricles, with the valves, was ex- 
tensively inflamed, and in a gangrenous state, accompanied 
with flakes of effused lymph. The kidneys and all the other 
organs were healthy. 
Remarks . — This case I consider interesting, since it shows 
how necessary it is at times, in lingering and insidious 
cases, to institute a post-mortem examination ; as I believe it 
is generally considered that when farcy terminates fatally, it 
is consequent upon disease of the lungs, which organs in this 
case were perfectly healthy. The immediate cause of death 
was carditis, the disease of the spleen being the proximate 
one, which organ had no doubt been affected for a considerable 
time. The lying down at length on the right side, appeared 
the only symptom indicating disease of the spleen. Farcy, I 
believe, is rarely attributed to diseases of any organ except 
the lungs. This case, however, is one in which it is not 
referable to any of the organs of the chest or abdomen, such 
as the liver and kidneys ; and although the function of the 
spleen has been somewhat questioned, and the organ itself 
considered by some physiologists as of little use in the animal 
economy, yet, in my opinion, it does act as an auxiliary to 
the other organs referred to, so as to render the blood healthy ; 
and when once this becomes diseased or vitiated, farcy, and 
even glanders, may, and often do, follow. 
CASE OF CHOKING IN THE HORSE. 
By R. H. Holloway, M.R.C.V.S., 2d Madras L. Cavalry. 
Gentlemen, — My only apology for introducing to your 
notice so comparatively unimportant a case as the following 
must be the courteous admonition which dropped from your 
pen in the last October number of the Veterinarian, p. 1 70. 
Yours very faithfully. 
To the Editors of the Veterinarian. 
A troop horse belonging to my own regiment, who at all 
times when medicine had to be administered to him was 
refractory, was reported to me, on the 2d of May last, as 
being nearly choked. One glance was sufficient to betray 
the imminent peril and the exquisite suffering of the un- 
fortunate animal. But as the symptoms attendant on a case 
xxix. ’ 33 
