PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
133 
would have been manifested. It is, however, beyond all question 
that the liver must have been affected for a considerable period ; 
and even supposing that the peritoneum could have exhibited the 
changes which it did, from the operation of inflammation of so 
recent a date as two days, yet it is hardly likely that the liver 
would be affected with inflammation of such a destructive nature, 
without the disease communicating itself more extensively over 
the serous membrane alike investing it and the intestines. 
At the time I was called to the case, I had not the most remote 
suspicion that the cow was diseased in the manner and to the 
extent she was. Another remarkable feature in the matter is, 
that the disease in the liver should have gone on in the manner 
and for the period which it did without producing such a change 
in the bilious secretion as to give some faint notice, at least, of its 
existence; but, no! the cow fed well, throve well, and yielded 
plenty of milk ; at least so said the owner. Cases of this nature 
are given in Mr. Youatt’s work on Cattle, which the reader will 
find by turning to page 460 of that book. 
Case II, is one of a very uncommon character, and it is the only 
one of the kind which I ever met with in my own practice. When 
I first saw it, I believed the whole had arisen from the accidental 
admission of a foreign substance within the larynx or the trachea; 
but, in attentively considering the facts presented by it, I now 
conclude that the violent respiratory symptoms arose from spasm 
of the glottis, induced, most probably, by the abscess irritating some 
of the filaments of the recurrent nerve, which are more or less 
distributed throughout the tracheal structures. In all cases like 
the present, occurring as they do but rarely, great difficulty will, 
of necessity, be experienced in forming a satisfactory diagnosis. A 
close consideration, however, of the facts of the present case will 
probably enable the veterinarj' reader to gather a few hints which 
may prove worthy of remembrance hereafter, should any thing of 
the kind ever fall under his immediate attention. 
In the first place, it shews the necessity of very minutely in- 
quiring into the entire history of the matter; not only from its 
earliest commencement, but also every particular up to the very 
moment of seizure. 
Secondly, the necessity also of very accurately noting the symp- 
toms, particularly the character of the sounds, whether such sounds 
are limited to the larynx, to the trachea, or to the lungs, or 
whether they are alike common to all of these organs. It will be 
perceived, by reference to symptoms numbered 2, 3, and 4, 
respectively of this case, that, while a loud rale was present in 
the trachea, the respiratory murmur through the lungs was of a 
normal character; while from symptom 3 we have the tracheal 
rale not onlv very loud, but that the loudness was alike common 
