176 STENOSIS AND COMPKESSION OF THE (ESOPHAGUS. 
oesophagus, the same treatment is recommended as in injuries from sharp 
substances. Nothing can be done in ruptures of the thoracic and abdominal 
portions. 
(4.) STENOSIS AND COMPRESSION OF THE 
(ESOPHAGUS. 
Stenosis of the oesophagus may result from chronic inflammatory pro¬ 
cesses in its walls. Andersen relates that a horse had for four months 
repeatedly suffered from impaction of the oesophagus, and on post-mortem 
showed a ring-like contraction, about 8 inches below the pharynx; the 
portion above this point was widened (ectastic). Kohne describes as 
stricture what appears to have been a diverticulum. 
A similar case is described by Friedenreich; a horse, after suffering for 
a long time from difficulty in swallowing, finally died from hunger, and 
on post-mortem a duplication of the mucous membrane was discovered 
arising from the upper pharyngeal wall, reducing to one-third the dimen¬ 
sions of the pharynx. The mucous membrane did not appear diseased. 
Compression of the oesophagus is caused by tumours in the thorax, or 
by swelling of the bronchial lymphatic glands (compression stenosis). 
Johne and others report such cases in oxen, in which tuberculous bron¬ 
chial glands compressed the oesophagus, and caused difficulty in swallow¬ 
ing and disturbance of nutrition. Animals are not so frequently affected 
as men, either by contraction of the mucous membrane, from the swallow¬ 
ing of irritants, or by narrowing of the lumen of the tube by tumours or 
parasites like spiroptera sanguinolenta, constituting obturation stenosis. 
These conditions can seldom be diagnosed with certainty. Their chronic 
course distinguishes them from the disturbances produced by foreign 
bodies or by diverticula of the oesophagus. Cattle often show chronic 
tympanites, and where this is accompanied by coughing and wasting, 
suspicion of tuberculosis must occur. 
There is seldom opportunity for treatment, the condition in most cases 
being only definitely recognised on post-mortem examination. 
(5.) PARALYSIS OF THE PHARYNX AND (ESOPHAGUS. 
The muscles of the pharynx and of the upper two-thirds of the 
oesophagus receive their motor nerves from the 9th pair, the last third 
of the oesophagus is supplied by the 10th pair. (For the innervation of 
deglutition, see “ Foreign Bodies in the Pharynx,” &c.) Paralysis of these 
nerves may induce functional disturbance. Records are numerous of so- 
called paralysis of the oesophagus, but the descriptions are not always 
reliable or complete, and some of the cases depend not so much on 
