STRANGLES. 
611 
He is probably cutting his corner incisors or his tusks at the time. 
We hardly know what is amiss. We may suspect, from all circum¬ 
stances put together, that he is breeding the strangles.'^ After 
a while we detect a tumour under the jaw, or, perhaps, two dis¬ 
tinct swellings : we then. pronounce that the horse has got the 
strangles. In other cases there exists a discharge from the nose, 
reddened Schneiderian membrane, sore throat and cough ; and 
strangles supervenes on these symptoms. 
The Submaxillary Tumour is often knotty and divided 
on its first appearance ; as if the glands received the primary 
attack. Commonly, it is slow in its progress; though I have 
known it appear quite suddenly, and spread and enlarge with 
great rapidity*. As it spreads, it becomes diffused in the cel¬ 
lular tissue included in the space between the sides and branches 
of the lower jaw, involving all the subcutaneous parts contained 
in that interval, indiscriminately, in one uniform mass of tume¬ 
faction. While this general turgescence is going on, various 
parts in the immediate vicinity likewise often take on the same 
kind of action. In particular, the salivary glands, the parotid, 
sublingual, the throat, the pharynx and larynx, the nose, the 
lining membrane, the nostrils, the sinuses, the mouth, the tongue, 
the cheeks, the lips: in fine, in some very violent cases, the whole 
head appears to be involved in one general mass of tumefaction; 
while every vent is running over with discharge. Our patient, 
experiencing this violent form of the disease, is in a truly pitiable 
plight. While purulent matter is issuing in profusion from his 
swollen nostrils, and slaver foams out from between his tumefied 
lips, his throat and air-passages are so plugged with collections of 
matter, that it is quite distressing to hear the noise he makes in 
his painful and laboured efforts to breathe. In such a case as 
this there is imminent danger of suffocation; and even though 
* I remember the case of a horse, belonging to the artillery, who, within 
the space of twenty-four hours, had a tumour form on the off-side of the 
submaxillary space to the size of a goose-egg. The animal being at the 
time in the infirmary for catarrh, the circumstance became accurately noted 
by those in attendance, as well as by myself. The tumour suppurated in 
the usual manner. 
