SUDDEN DEATH IN A DOG. 
43 
being unusual. There was not a trace of arsenical, mercurial, or, 
in fact, any metallic poison. Of the vegetable poisons, I can only 
say, that there was not the slightest trace of the morbid effects of 
any of them. 
The pericardium, and the left side of the thorax, contained a 
small quantity of bloody serous fluid, and the heart was full of 
black blood. The left lung was a little inflamed. 
The trachea contained some frothy, yellow mucous matter, simi¬ 
lar to the contents of the stomach. 
In the larynx was found one of those worms usually inhabiting 
the cavities of the nose, and termed by Rhind peutostoma tcenoides, 
and which had probably escaped from the nose while the dog had 
been hunting, and, lodging in the larynx, had destroyed the ani¬ 
mal by producing spasms of the muscles of the larynx. The worm 
was about one inch and a half in length, and had partly penetrated 
through the rima glottidis. Another worm, about the same size, 
was found in the left bronchia, and a still smaller one among the 
mucus of the trachea. There were also four others in the nose. 
Several years ago, I found some worms of the filaria species 
in the right ventricle of the heart of a dog, and which had pro¬ 
duced sudden death, by interrupting the action of the valves. 
[The history of the Entozoa has been unpardonably neglected by 
veterinary practitioners. They have, and especially in the dog, 
far more to do with disease than most of us seem to be aware. 
Gelle, in the Feuilleton attached to his invaluable treatise on the 
Pathology of Cattle, gives a curious account of filariae, embedded 
in the membranes of the oesophagus of an animal that has, I hope 
falsely, been supposed to be the progenitor of the dog. 
The carcass of an old wolf that had been destroyed by a hunt¬ 
ing party was brought to the Veterinary School at Toulouse. On 
examining him, there was found in the thoracic portion of the oeso¬ 
phagus four tumours, of the size of a small nut, and situated be¬ 
tween the muscular and mucous coat of that organ. These cysts 
communicated with the interior of the oesophagus by a small canal 
half a line in diameter. Being opened, they presented a thick 
tunic or enveloping membrane, of a fibrous or almost scirrhous 
character, and of a marbled green and black colour. At some 
points this scirrhous substance was softened, and there were lodged 
a multitude of entozoa, of the filaria species. It appeared as if 
the worms could creep through these apertures into the oesophagean 
canal. 
M. Gelle asks whether these scirrhous tumours were the con¬ 
sequence of wounds of the mucous membrane of the oesopha¬ 
gus, effected during the deglutition of some hard body, and that 
