DISLOCATION AND FRACTURE OF THE SPINE. 
53 
him, he must die. On hastily inquiring what all this was about, 
I was told that a ball had been given to him a little while before, 
and which, it was imagined, had stuck in his throat. 
I immediately proceeded to examine him, but the ball was not 
to be detected in the cervical portion of the oesophagus. In my 
own mind, I was convinced that it was in the fauces, or pressing 
upon the larynx, but the violent heaving of the poor fellow, and 
the instant suffocation that threatened when he was moved in the 
slightest degree, precluded any attempt to pass the probang : I 
therefore determined on immediate tracheotomy. It was but the 
work of a few seconds to open the trachea, and to insert a bent 
tube, with which I am always provided. He experienced instant, 
although very far from perfect relief. 
I allowed him a little time to recruit his strength, and then 
endeavoured to introduce a probang into the gullet. I experienced 
a great deal of difficulty in accomplishing this. The obstruction 
was where I suspected, viz., at the commencement of the oesopha- 
gus. After repeated attempts, however, I did remove the ball. 
I then bled him, and administered an aperient ball. Still the 
animal continued to breathe very laboriously, and I suspected that 
a part of the ball had passed into the trachea, and perhaps into 
the bronchi, and I feared that, after all, my patient would be lost. 
The pulse remained rapid and hard, and was fully 100 ; I there- 
fore, before I left him, practised a second bleeding, and ordered 
two scruples of opium and the same quantity of digitalis to be 
given every three hours. 
This medicine had an admirable effect in allaying the extreme 
irritation that had been for so long a time going on. In about 
fifteen hours after the operation, all unfavourable symptoms had 
vanished ; the appetite and spirits returned, but the horse was 
kept under a restricted diet for awhile. The wound in the 
trachea quickly healed, and the animal now continues as well and 
as fresh as he ever was. 
A CASE OF DISLOCATION AND FRACTURE OF THE 
SPINE IN A HORSE, FROM A FALL. 
By Mr . T. Darby, of Louth. 
Mr. NAULL, of this place, lent a very valuable hunter to a 
friend for a day’s sport with Lord Yarborough’s hounds. In the 
course of the day he threw his rider, a very good one, and made 
for his stable at a most tremendous rate. When he got into the 
town he fell twice heels over head, and came, each time, with his 
