330 
CHOKING. 
which was beyond my grasp. External manipulation over 
the pharynx induced the most excruciating pain, and by it 
I could distinctly feel some irregular shaped substance of 
small size within the cavity. By energetically pushing 
my hand as far into the mouth as possible, while an assis- 
tant pressed on the outside of the pharynx, I was enabled 
to grasp the offending body, and which proved to be a thorn 
that had evidently been broken off the hedge and been 
gathered in with the hay. (See fig. at p. 329.) 
I insert an engraving of the natural size of the thorn ; al- 
though the case may possibly appear to many to be too 
simple to warrant the employment of such a means for its 
illustration ; and like an eminent physician who, having found 
a pin protruding from the vermiform appendage of the caecum 
and piercing the iliac artery, had the pin delineated, I may 
be smiled at — all pins being alike. Still, under the somewhat 
singular circumstances of this thorn being accidentally 
located in the animal’s food, its subsequent lodgment in 
the pharynx, the difficulty its form presented against its 
ready extraction, and the alarming and dangerous symptoms 
it gave rise to, I feel that I have a just excuse for the act. 
These two cases of choking, it will be seen, belong to op- 
posite classes. The one depends upon a spherical and com- 
paratively solid substance filling the calibre of the tube it 
would have to pass through to reach the stomach ; and the 
other upon a small-sized but irregular shaped body, which 
became arrested in its course by being fixed by its spines to 
the mucous membrane or lining of the pharynx. 
[This case of Mr. Dickinson’s, brings to our recollection 
one which occurred many years since in our practice. A 
pony, belonging to a tradesman in a small way of business, 
w r as turned in the spring of the year into a pasture at a short 
distance from his residence. From this cause, it was not 
seen till about a week afterw r ards, when he found it standing 
at one corner of the field, looking remarkably dejected and 
very thin, having evidently not taken any food for several 
days ; a small quantity of viscid saliva w r as also escaping from 
the mouth. The owner had the pony removed home, and 
gave it the best attention he could for a few more days, dur- 
ing which time it took nothing but a little water, and which 
it drank with great difficulty. Our attendance was now 
requested. Examination disclosed a piece of stick, about the 
size of one’s finger, firmly wedged across the palate, 
between the two corner incisor teeth of the upper jaw. 
Its pressure had produced extensive sloughing, so that 
the bone was completely exposed ; the pain was so great 
