PRACTICE OF VETERINARY MEDICINE. 
435 
casionally in association with rupture of the organ, of which records 
from time to time have been furnished to this Journal. The dis- 
ease of the' heart arose from a twofold source, physical and patho- 
logical, but more particularly from the latter. It will be borne in 
mind, that, in addition to the liver being diseased, the kidneys were 
also organically changed : both of these latter organs were softened, 
particularly the left one, which I have described as being in 
a “pulpy” state; a state which evidently resulted from the in- 
sidious progress of long existent disease. 
Now, it must be evident that organs so all important to the 
economy of the organism as the kidneys and the liver are, could not 
long be diseased without giving rise to serious and important 
changes in this economy. The waste and poisonous matters 
which it is the principal duty of these organs to secrete and cast 
from the system would, in part, be retained ; and it is to the constant 
retention of these matters that I principally attribute the diseased 
state of the valves and muscular substance of the heart. The 
hypertrophy of this organ would, without doubt, be caused, in some 
degree, by the extra amount of labour it would necessarily have to 
perform from the lungs having partially become solid ; but the 
principal cause, after all, I strongly believe, would be the poisonous 
state of the circulating fluid. In like manner I would also, in part, 
explain the cause of the frequent attacks of megrims or vertigo ; a 
similar cause to which, 1 suspect, may frequently exist, but which 
hitherto does not appear to have received sufficient attention. 
Ere I conclude my remarks upon this head, I would allude to 
the difficulty of breathing which so suddenly manifested itself in 
this case ; the principal cause of which I also believe arose from 
spasm of the glottis. I have now detailed three cases in which 
this affection was a prominent condition : the first the reader will 
find detailed in Case I, Contribution VI; while the particulars of 
the other two are furnished in the present Contribution. 
Spasm of the glottis in the horse is an affection which has either 
never been observed, or, if observed, not regarded as worthy of 
notice; for certain it is that no allusion is made to it by any ve- 
terinary writer with whom I am familiar; and yet the importance 
of clearly recognizing it, especially to the young practitioner, is a 
matter which no one, I apprehend, will dispute. The affection in 
question bears a close resemblance in many respects to others, but 
more especially is it liable to be mistaken for those induced by 
choking, or by the accidental admission of fluids into the trachea : 
the symptoms in all have a resemblance in many respects ; yet, by 
a careful attention to one or two particulars, the observer will be 
enabled to recognize the one from the other. 
In choking, the difficulty of breathing at the commencement is 
