322 ON STRICTURE IN THE (ESOPHAGUS OF THE COW. 
I passed with every necessary caution down the oesophagus. It 
proceeded for a considerable distance without any interruption, 
when it suddenly stopped, and force was required to again send 
it onwards, and at the moment it proceeded a quantity of thick 
and very fetid pus rushed from the upper extremity of the pro- 
bang, which satisfactorily proved that my conjectures respecting 
the existence of a stricture were well founded. In a little time 
the instrument was withdrawn, and about two quarts of thick 
gruel administered to the cow, which did not return. I visited 
my patient again on the following day, and found her worse. The 
pulse was almost imperceptible, the extremities cold, the eyes sunk 
in their orbits, and a discharge of thick yellow mucus came from 
their inner canthus. The abdomen was distended with gas, pus dis- 
charged from the vagina, and when food was given to her the 
greater portion of it was, as usual, vomited back. I saw that 
the vital energies were rapidly on the decline — that the undigested 
substances within her, in consequence of the decline of the proper 
energies, were beginning to decompose, and that, unless a speedy 
alteration for the better took place, the termination would shortly 
prove unfavourable. Recourse was a second time had to the 
probang, which was again obstructed in the same part as on the 
day previous, but vomiting was never afterwards observed. The 
cow, however, in spite of every effort and every assistance, 
medical or otherwise, continued to sink, until at last she died on 
the 6th of March. 
Examination eight hours after death . — I dissected out very 
carefully the whole of the oesophagus from one extremity to the 
other, and upon cutting it open and exposing its internal sur- 
face, I found at the commencement of the cesophagean canal the 
situation of the stricture. The cuticular membrane of the canal 
at this part was gone for more than an inch , which of course ex- 
posed the muscular fibres entering into the formation of the organ. 
For five or six inches below the seat of injury , and for two inches 
above it, the whole was in a state of gangrene. 
The abdominal and thoracic viscera were healthy throughout ; 
the paunch contained a moderate quantity of food, but the third 
and fourth stomachs were empty. In conclusion, then, I would 
remark that from the time that intervened from the first ap- 
pearance of choking, which I mentioned as occurring soon after 
Christmas, and from the healthy condition of the abdominal and 
thoracic organs, that if measures of an efficient kind had been 
put into force at the first, when the constitutional energies were 
vigorous, the animal would undoubtedly have recovered. The 
injury in the first instance I cannot suppose was either very 
severe or very extensive ; but the food which the cow constantly 
