OhronIc catarrh of the guttural pouches. 
115 
to the neighbouring parts by connective tissue. From their protected 
position they seldom suffer from inflammatory disorders; ^ but when 
these do occur, they are generally of a chronic character, Secietion is 
retained, becomes decomposed, and then irritates the membrane. Ihe 
fluid part is mostly resorbed, while the solid, from movement within the 
pouches, becomes fashioned into chestnut-like bodies, which sometimes 
attain the size of a hen’s egg. Their surface appears yellowish-biown, 
their interior ellowish, and on account of their cartilaginous consistency 
they have been described as chondroids. They are in many instances 
of the nature of inspissated pus. Uhlich counted 817 small chondroids 
weighing collectively 17 ounces. Savarese removed 240 ; they weighed 
from 5 grains up to 1-f- drams. In other cases a turbid, ponidge-like 
fluid, containing great numbers of greyish-white grains, sometimes mixed 
with food materials, occupy the diseased sac. Thomassen desciibes 
dropsy of the guttural pouch in a two months old foal; Johow found the 
pouch filled with thick mucus ; the entrance to the pharynx was displaced 
by the swelling. The distended pouch presses on the larynx and tiacliea, 
and causes dyspnoea; thickenings or polypoid growths are often seen 
on the surface of the mucous membrane. Generally only one pouch 
is diseased, seldom both. 
The causes include inflammatory processes extending from the mucous 
membrane of the pharynx through the Eustachian tube duiing the coiuse 
of sore throat and strangles, and foreign bodies and food passing into the 
pouch. Whether in such cases congenital defects exist in the Eustachian 
tube cannot be determined by the communications of observers. Possibly 
changes in the valve at the entrance to the Eustachian tube may cause the 
entry of food into the guttural pouch. Schlampp found 27 ounces of food 
in the pouch of a horse. Ruprecht records injury to the sac from a 
piece of bone derived from a fracture of the hyoid. Hering and Hahn 
discovered in a glandered. horse cicatrices, small abscesses and ulceis in 
the mucous membrane of the sac ; the latter was distended with a mucoid 
secretion. Hallander found a sarcoma in the guttural pouch. It had 
broken into the spinal canal and caused hemiplegia. The pouch showed 
signs of catarrh. 
Symptoms. (1) The nasal discharge is one-sided, muco-purulent, 
generally without unpleasant smell, occasionally appears for a time in 
considerable quantity, and may then entirely disappear. Pressure on 
the guttural pouch, placing the bit in position or lowering the head, 
increase the discharge. 
(2) The swelling is sometimes slight, sometimes well marked. In 
one horse, whose right sac held more than 2 pounds of concretions, 
scarcely any swelling could be observed from the outside. In another, 
swelling occurred in a marked degree in the parotid region, especially 
i 2 
