554 
REMARKS ON DRENCHES, &C. 
denying that drinks may be given, without much danger, by a 
person who goes rightly about it ; but the administering of it 
frequently, adroitly, and safely, requires some vovs- I use a bot- 
tle, or a horn with the small end cut off, and a large wooden 
bung or cork in the other end. The head should only be elevated 
just sufficiently for the fluid to run down. If a disposition to 
cough shews itself, the head should be instantly dropped ; no 
matter how much of the drink is lost. Where there is sore throat, 
nothing should induce me to administer a drink, unless I thought 
that the patient would probably die without it. It would be well 
for the junior members of the profession if older ones were at hand 
with whom they might communicate from time to time, and who 
would point out from time to time the danger of certain proceed- 
ings. It would serve as a beacon to warn us of danger. 
Swellings in the throat often, apparently, require the insertion of 
setons ; but the animal is occasionally destroyed by this very mea- 
sure. That was, apparently, a very honest and, in my opinion, 
a very valuable case of laryngitis, related by Mr. Hutchinson, of 
East Retford*. A horse had had violent cough and sore throat 
during a fortnight. Mr. Hutchinson, acting on the principle 
of counter-irritation, and, in fact, chronic inflammation of the 
larynx being the plain and palpable disease, and acute inflam- 
mation being comparatively slight, inserted a seton under the 
jaw. What was the consequence? A most rapid swelling of 
the contiguous parts took place. It extended to the parotid first, 
and then, becoming of an enormous size, reached to the back of 
the head and half way down the front of the neck. Another vete- 
rinary surgeon was called in. They performed the operation of 
tracheotomy, which removed the difficulty of breathing ; but the 
swelling extended with immense rapidity — the tongue protruded 
from the mouth, and the animal fell into a comatose state : this 
w r as followed by a state of extreme violence, and it became neces- 
sary to destroy him. The membranes of the larynx, epiglottis, 
and trachea, were highly inflamed and thickened — the whole was 
the consequence of the seton operating on a part so disposed to 
take on inflammation. Not the slightest blame could be attri- 
buted to the surgeon. I have seen horses lost from rowels in 
precisely the same way. Erysipelatous inflammation was set up, 
and could not be arrested. 
I once destroyed a pony by placing a large seton on each side 
of the ribs. 1 imagine that I must have penetrated beneath the 
panniculus carnosus. I did not, indeed, examine him, but he 
was blown as tight as a drum, and the setons had taken on the 
process of mortification. I should observe, that the pony had a 
* Veterinarian, vol. viii, page 684. 
