274 
A COW KILLED BY VINEGAR. 
improved, but the frequency was kept up to the last. Ears and 
extremities deathy cold throughout ; appetite gone. At first 
there was an increased action of the bowels, but she did not 
purge ; and latterly nothing passed. The urine at first was 
voided in small quantities, and had the exact appearance of the 
vinegar which she had taken. Some time after I witnessed a 
rather frequent and copious flow of urine, and it had a healthy 
appearance : her being drenched with much gruel might account 
for this. Moving or exciting her, by drenching her, aggravated 
her distress of breathing and sense of suffocation, which last symp- 
tom I should have mentioned before. Several times she lay 
down, when the tympanitic state of her body, which had presented 
itself all the time of her illness from the first six hours, would 
rapidly increase, with other distress, and then she would start up 
with a convulsive spring. On applying my ear to the trachea, I 
at once felt convinced that serious mischief was going on there, 
from the noise I heard, but which it is not very easy to describe. 
Treatment . — Fluids and medicines were thrown into her to 
dilute, and neutralize, and soothe. Venesection was performed, 
and the blood was dark instead of the bright red of health, and 
often even of disease. Counter-irritants were applied to the 
throat and to the course of the windpipe. 
Post-mortem Examination . — In this I was kindly assisted by 
a medical gentleman of this place. On laying open the larynx, 
trachea, and bronchial tubes, a novel appearance (to me, at least) 
presented itself. The epiglottis was free from lesion, but from 
thence through the whole course of the larynx, trachea, and 
bronchial tubes, a false membrane, composed of thick and firm 
coagulated lymph, had been formed, and in its appearance greatly 
resembled the true mucous membrane of respiratory passages. 
Removing it, the mucous membrane of the trachea, &c. was found 
to be highly inflamed throughout. Displacing this, the cellular 
tissue connecting it with the cartilaginous ring of the wind pipe was 
greatly infiltrated with yellow serum. These changes diminished 
the natural calibre of the trachea and bronchial tubes to one-half, 
and many of the small air-passages were altogether obliterated. 
The oesophagus was next examined, and was found entire. The 
rumen was the greatest sufferer of all the digestive organs, being 
the first to receive this deleterious draft. Its cuticular coat was 
easily triturated between the thumb and finger, when the sensible 
coats presented a highly injected appearance, and were softened 
and tender, as if partly boiled. The reticulum was slightly af- 
fected ; the manyplus healthy, its contents comminuted with the 
reticulum pulpy ; the other part contained dry and hard food. 
The abomasum and intestines were healthy ; the liver much en- 
