A PIG CHOKED WITH A POTATOE FOR A WEEK. 551 
To five l gave about 3iss each of the liquor sodae chlorinatae in 
some cold water. In the course of five minutes the swelling 
began to subside ; a quarter of an hour more so ; and entirely 
soon afterwards. 
I have several times passed the probang without any relief 
being given, and am inclined to think that the end of it is then 
obstructed by the food, or does not fairly enter the stomach. Once 
I recollect passing the tube down one, and no gas escaped. On 
examination I found that the tube was filled with rust ; it is, 
therefore, a good plan to have a stiletto always in it, or at any 
rate to force a strong brass one up it occasionally. Would it 
not be advisable to use some other metal that would not rust so 
much, and also to have the instrument made so that more holes 
should be up the sides, something like in the tapping trocar? 
On one occasion I was called up early in the morning, and 
when it was dark, to a cow that was enormously swollen. I took 
with me a bottle of the liquor sodee chlorin. out of which I must 
have, rather hurriedly, poured an ounce or two to some water, 
with which I commenced drenching her; but she had scarcely 
had above a hornfull or two before she fell down and died. I 
am almost inclined to think that the chlorine had some delete- 
rious effect in paralysing the glottis. The oesophagus and trachea 
were ruptured. 
A PIG CHOKED WITH A POTATOE FOR A WEEK. 
By the same. 
Mr. Sadler, of the Hollyhurst, called on me in Jan. 1843, to 
say that he had a large valuable sow that had been choked with 
a potatoe during the last three days. I advised him to permit 
me to go and pass the probang, but he deferred it for a day 
or tw r o, to see if it would go down of itself. On the following 
market-day he called to say that she was dead. She had lived 
just a week with it in her. On examination he found the potatoe 
in the oesophagus, at about five inches from the stomach, and 
not in the least dissolved. The inner coat of the oesophagus 
was destroyed, and there was considerable thickening about the 
place where the obstruction was situated. The symptoms were 
an inability to pass any thing into the stomach, as what she 
swallowed was soon vomited up again. 
