CASE OF STRANGLES. 
709 
I now was determined to examine every part; and to my utter 
astonishment I found most extensive disease going on in the kid¬ 
neys. On the near side this organ was much softened, and of a 
clay colour, and around it there was a great deal of lymph and 
serum : hut the grand secret was disclosed by finding the off kid¬ 
ney, around and underneath which, and principally the latter, 
there was a mass of coagulated blood of the size of one’s head. 
On examining the kidney, I found in it a large abscess, containing 
a great quantity of sanious matter, very different from ordinary 
pus; in short, I shoidd say that this kidney was in a completely 
disorganized state, but more so around the abscess. I left the 
mass of blood and disease for the owner to see, and therefore did 
not examine it minutely. 
The liver was diseased, being of a clay colour. The bladder 
was nearly full of urine; but T am sorry to say I quite neglected 
to examine its contents. I recollect, however, seeing a great deal 
of urine voided when he was dying, and which seemed nearly the 
same as in health. 
Observations .—This is one of those unpleasant cases that occa¬ 
sionally happen in every man’s practice, and which tends to stagger 
his faith in limiting himself to the ordinary symptoms in detecting 
disease, and might be the means of injuring the practitioner in the 
eyes of his employer. I had little or no doubt of finding some abnor¬ 
mal state in the cranial cavity or vertebral canal. At the same time 
it gives an excellent lesson, and perhaps may be a caution to look 
with a jealous eye on every symptom, however trifling that symp¬ 
tom may be; for the post-mortem examination explains those slight 
and trifling indications that were observed by us, and which were 
taken for nothing more than some irritation in the bowels, such as 
the occasional writhing of the tail, a little restlessness, and the one 
or two peculiar cringings almost with the belly to the ground, and 
which, perhaps, took place at the time of the rupture of some of 
the bloodvessels, and so causing pressure on the surrounding parts. 
All this, however, was very transient, and little thought of. 
There was also the smell of the urine, but which was not noticed 
until a few hours previous to death. He had been voiding his 
urine a few days previously a little more frequently; but this was 
scarcely thought of at the time. 
When he was walking out, there was no straddling in his gait; 
but he had a very great aversion to pass in or out of the box, through 
fear of the neck being touched, and would rush against the oppo¬ 
site door-post with the greatest force, in order to prevent it from 
being touched. The pulse, most of the time, was neither quick 
nor much different from a healthy one; and at the time I bled him 
VOL. XIII. 5 H 
