536 INFLUENZA OF A SINGULAR CHARACTER, WITH 
still hard ; the fore legs widely abducted, and much pain betrayed 
when percussion was applied to the sides. The inspirations were 
short and painful, accompanied by a kind of grunt, and a peculiar 
rale of the lungs — a sort of crackling noise. From this I was 
apprehensive of serious thoracic disease. I placed a seton over 
the pectoral region, and blistered the sides ; continuing the acid, 
hydrocyanic, and giving occasional enemas. 
19^/i. — Pulse 76. A decided improvement. The blister is 
acting well ; the seton has caused much tumefaction, but the 
swelling in the throat is as large as ever, quite hard, and painful 
when touched. No appearance of approaching abscess — respira- 
tion more tranquil — the mucous membranes paler. I gave an in- 
jection, and some faeces came away much coated with mucus. I 
offered him some milk. He swallowed a portion of it with very 
great difficulty, and part of it was returned through the nostrils, 
mixed with a green ropy secretion. He now coughed compara- 
tively seldom, and previous to the cough he walked round his 
box, with his muzzle protruded and his abdominal muscles drawn 
up, until, at length, the effort was accomplished with a sort of 
blurt through the nostrils, while, at the same time, a quantity of 
muco-purulent secretion escaped through the tube. 
He continued to improve until the 21st, and was able to drink 
milk and take thin bran mashes ; but the swelling all this time 
remained stationary, without the slightest appearance of abscess 
or formation of pus. We kept his bowels open by enemas, and 
used every means to induce suppuration in the tumour, but with- 
out avail ; and on the seventh day of my attendance we found 
him dead, and apparently without a struggle. Not a straw' ap- 
peared disturbed, nor his clothes in the slightest degree displaced. 
Anxious to ascertain the cause of his sudden death, and more 
particularly on account of the other four cases that were still de- 
pending, I proceeded to a post-mortem examination. I soon dis- 
covered the cause of death. It was a collection of pus in the 
eustachian cavity, and the fatal result was effected in a singular 
way. During the night the tracheotomy tube had become 
plugged up with bran, and completely prevented the access of 
air, and the animal died from suffocation. A pail had been slung 
in his box filled with bran mash, and some itching or irritation 
about the place at which the tube was inserted had caused him 
to rub against and inside the pail, and thus the tube became 
filled with bran. The eustachian cavity contained at least two 
quarts of ill-secreted pus. The mucous membrane was slightly 
inflamed in places, but not seriously so ; the lungs were almost 
impervious to air, and in a state of collapse. 
The disease in the other one-year-old colts assumed a more 
