COM.PT F. 11KNDU OF THK LATINS SCHOOL, 1839-40. 323 
and, in the chronic state, the use of resolvents, and, as a last re- 
source, the actual cautery. 
It is often difficult to ascertain the precise disease of our 
patients, and the other maladies with which it may be connected. 
A cab-master brought to us one of his horses which he said had 
been ill-used by the driver. The throat was very tender when 
pressed upon — mingled spume and mucus ran from the nostrils, — 
and, whenever he attempted to eat or to drink, the aliment returned 
through the nostrils. The posterior part of the mouth on exami- 
nation presented a slight excoriation, but this had nothing to do 
with the vomition, for the food passed over it as readily during 
deglutition as on its return speedily afterwards. We could 
not suspect rupture of the stomach, for there was no enlargement 
of the belly, nor did the animal appear to suffer any pain ; besides, 
a rupture of the stomach could not have continued so long with- 
out certain death. 
We imagined that there was rupture of the oesophagus, but of 
the description or serious nature of which we had no means of 
judging. In the meantime the patient retained no food, gradu- 
ally lost all strength, and withered away and died. On exami- 
nation after death we found a rent on the left side of the pharynx, 
nearly four inches in length, which penetrated through the mucous 
membrane and the cellular substance which separated it from 
the fleshy surface of the oesophagus, and appeared like a vast 
pouch that extended to the right sac of the stomach, and in which 
were collections of liquid and solid food, exhaling the most offen- 
sive smell. It would certainly have been difficult to have guessed 
at any lesion like this, or to have explained its effects until after 
an examination of the dead body. 
ON PUERPERAL FEVER. 
By Mr. J. D. Harrison, V.S., Southport. 
The attention of your readers having frequently been drawn 
to the disease in cows, which is generally called puerperal or milk 
fever, I purpose, with your permission, to give a short account 
of the treatment which in my own practice I have found most 
efficacious. It not being in my power to throw any new light 
upon the seat of the complaint, I shall not intrude farther upon 
your pages than a brief recital of my own opinions, deduced from 
a long and extensive practice, will necessarily occupy. 
