556 ON THE SWALLOWING OF SPONGE BY A HOUSE. 
Thos. Chas. Higgins, Esq. of Survey House, in this county, 
purchased a six-year-old horse of a dealer in the neighbourhood. 
Not being wanted for immediate use, he was turned into a pad- 
dock, where he remained for a week. At the expiration of that 
time he was brought up for the purpose of getting through his 
physic, and was placed in a loose box away from the stables, 
and put upon a bran-mash diet. Upon the groom going into 
the box on the following morning, he remarked that there was a 
peculiar offensive smell, resembling the effluvia from dead rats ; 
and upon removing the faeces he discovered a piece of sponge, 
the size of an egg, and which explained at once the cause of the 
stench. 
In order to convince himself that the horse had not taken it 
during the time he was in the box, he examined his stock, and 
found that he had not lost any ; and he is quite positive that the 
horse must? have swallowed it before he was in their possession, 
because no sponge had been afterwards used where he could 
possibly get at it. I have the sponge in my possession, and it 
appears to me to have been a new piece, and in my opinion has 
not in the slightest degree undergone the process of digestion. 
I once met with the case of a horse swallowing a sponge, the 
particulars of which I sent to you*. In that case not a particle 
was voided undigested, but the patient was ill to an alarming 
degree. There certainly was a difference with respect to their 
food : one had been kept upon hard meat for two or three years, 
and the other upon his natural diet, he having been at grass for 
some months. That being the case, I should have imagined that 
the sponge would have passed off in a few hours ; contrary to 
which, it appears quite clear to me that he swallowed it previous 
to Mr. Higgins purchasing him. If you think this case worthy 
of your attention, perhaps you will insert it in your valuable 
Periodical, as I wish to have the opinion of some of your talented 
correspondents upon so extraordinary a case. 
FROM MR. ATCHERLEY TO MR. PERCIVALL, ON THE 
TREATMENT OF DISTEMPER BY MERCURY. 
Sir, — Having with much pleasure noticed, in the August 
number of that important periodical The Veterinarian, your 
remarks on the effects of mercury on horses, I take the liberty 
of sending you the subjoined case. 
* Veterinarian, vol. xii, p. 323. 
