70 AN ENCYSTED TUMOUR AT THE BASE OF THE MOUTH. 
the8th of November last, when I accidentally saw him on passing 
to examine a horse-pond, about the purity of which there hap- 
pened to be a dispute. Not having time to examine him minute- 
ly, I stated that I suspected there was some obstruction in or 
about the top of the windpipe, and, in the meantime, advised a 
smart blister to be applied to the throat. Little had been done 
previously, except bleeding him and giving him soft food. It 
was a week before the blister was applied ; and, in the mean- 
time, he became worse than he had ever been. After the fits he 
was so much weakened as to be unable to rise for some time, but 
lay with his legs stretched out and his mouth open, gasping con- 
vulsively, and attempting by slow and long-drawn inspirations to 
obtain relief. After the application of the blister, however, he 
appeared somewhat relieved from the frequent recurrence of the 
fits, although,. when they did recur, they were equally severe; 
and in one of them he reared up and fell backward, nearly 
killing himself, and, by his struggles, endangering all the other 
horses around him. 
Mr. Reid now considering the animal as useless, and being 
tired of keeping him, sent him here as a subject for experiment 
or dissection as might be thought advisable; and he was accord- 
ingly brought by one of his servants, who informed me that he 
had performed the journey tolerably well, and had not been so 
ill as he usually was. 
On careful examination no tumour or swelling was felt along 
any part of the throat externally ; but when the larynx was 
grasped with the hand, the animal was made to cough freely: 
and, on the ear being placed near the anterior nostrils, a slight 
sybillous wheezing was heard during ordinary inspiration. On 
the mouth being widely opened and fixed, and the tongue pulled 
forward, I requested my assistant to pass his hand along its dor- 
sum to its base, and the superior aperture of the larynx; and on 
reaching the epiglottis he immediately felt a tumour on the mesial 
line and in the anterior direction, equalling the size of a pullet’s 
egg. It felt as if immediately under the mucous membrane, at- 
tached by a small neck in the folds of the fraenum of the epiglottis, 
and felt at first as if it might be easily torn from its situation. 
On drawing it outwards the pedicle elongated greatly, but it did 
not appear to be likely to give way without endangering the 
neighbouring parts by the force which would have been required. 
Having satisfied myself fully as to the nature of the case — that 
the tumour, from the looseness of its connexion, was occasionally 
jerked over the epiglottis into the glottis, and gave rise to all 
the symptoms of asphyxia which the animal had previously ex- 
hibited, I determined on a removal of the tumour ; but its 
