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DURING THE SCHOLASTIC YEAR 1837 - 8 . 
and auscultation. Many old practitioners have eagerly adopted 
the means by which they may more directly and surely arrive at 
a correct knowledge of disease. It is true that, by the dilatation 
and contraction, the frequency or the slowness of the movements 
of the nostrils and the parietes of the chest — by pressure exercised 
on the intercostal region — by the character of the cough, and by the 
position in which the patient instinctively places himself, the prac- 
titioner is enabled to detect an abnormal state of the respiratory 
function, and in some cases the particular lesion ; but, neverthe- 
less, by accustoming himself to listen to the different sounds which 
may be heard within the tracheal tube and the walls of the chest, 
he can much more readily and surely distinguish the organ that 
suffers and the kind of lesion, and even the particular portion of 
the organ that is diseased v Auscultation and percussion are ex- 
ceedingly valuable in assisting us to form not only a sure diagnosis, 
but, in many cases, a prognosis almost as certain ; and the latter 
circumstance is most intimately connected with the reputation of 
the surgeon. We would, therefore, recommend to the younger 
practitioners the most careful study of these valuable modes of 
exploring the chest. 
Glanders, dependent, in a great measure, on the vicissitudes 
of the weather that have characterized this session, as well as 
on other causes, has been very prevalent in the establishments of 
many of the post-masters and proprietors of diligences in Lyons. 
We have made few or no advances towards the radical cure of 
this malady. We have seen it commence in its acute state in two 
asses, with the characters of laryngo-tracheitis, and accompanied 
by a loud laryngeal sound. Bleeding from the jugular, and a ve- 
sicatory placed under the throat, have caused the respiratory sound 
to cease ; but, seven days afterwards, ulceration of the pituitary 
membrane has followed, and hoarseness referrible to the nasal pas- 
sages, and difficulty of respiration, and death. 
One of these animals had acute glanders and farcy, a complica- 
tion very rare in this monodactyle. An ass that was placed in the 
same stable as the two of which mention has just been made, 
became glandered in six weeks, and died. 
In the course of this year we have several times observed a 
phlegmonous tumour, of which, in the situation that it occupied, 
little mention has been made. We call it masstterien. It is evi- 
dently accompanied by very considerable pain, by trismus, or great 
difficulty in the prehension and mastication of the food. It does not 
suppurate until twelve or fifteen days, and, during that time, the 
patient is rapidly losing condition, on account of the difficulty or 
impossibility of mastication. Although the masseter muscle be- 
comes protuberant when the pus is collecting beneath it, the fluc- 
vol. xii. C c 
