RUPTURE OF THE TRACHEA. 
3G3 
was feeding with apparent appetite. I now thought that a portion 
of her food had insinuated itself into the trachea, and caused all 
this disturbance. 1 however ordered twelve drops of the croton oil 
to be given to her in pieces of mangel wurzel. She took it readily, 
and ate it as I stood by. About twelve o^clock it freely purged her. 
Towards evening the difficulty of breathing returned, but it was 
not by a great deal so bad as on the preceding night. I ordered 
two drachms of emetic tartar to be again put in her water. 
16^4.—She took part of her drugged water in the night. The 
breathing began to get quieter about ten o’clock at night. She 
was comparatively easier during the night, and nothing seemed 
this morning to be the matter with her but a very peculiar labour 
of the flanks at each act of expiration. The coat was some¬ 
what roughened. About eight o’clock in the evening the difficulty 
of breathing returned almost to the dreadful extent of the first 
night. It was distressing to look at her. The labour was 
evidently in the act of expiration. I expected that she would 
have been suffocated every moment; yet she would now and then 
take a bit of mangel wurzel from the keeper’s hand, but it was 
almost immediately dropped. I suspected that I had a case of 
croup, assuming a periodical form, and I was at a loss in what 
manner to treat her, for I could administer no medicine but what 
she would take voluntarily. She would have furiously fought 
against the attempt to drench her, and it did not require any 
considerable struggle to produce inevitable suffocation. About 
twelve o’clock she became a little quieter, and took, concealed in 
the food before tried, two grains of the muriate of morphia, and 
a drachm of calomel. 
V7th .—This morning again she was comparatively easy; but 
fearing a recurrence of the exacerbation, I ordered her medicine 
to be given to her at six o’clock. It apparently produced no 
effect, for the spasm returned at eight o’clock, and was as violent 
as on the preceding night. “ She is a ruminant,” I reasoned with 
myself, and probably the drugged food had qot been so soon 
returned for remastication. She shall have her next dose at eight 
o’clock in the morning.” The ravages of the disease were now 
getting sadly, and yet in a very singular way, evident. The 
sinking in of the flanks, even at the period of comparative quiet¬ 
ness, was greater than I had ever seen in the most laboured 
respiration; and yet there was now no great dilatation of the 
nostril, or general distress; the head, however, was somewhat 
protruded. Except at the time of the exacerbation she fed as 
well as usual, but her countenance indicated much distress. 
—The medicine was given at eight o’clock in the morn¬ 
ing, and the spasm did not appear at the usual time in the even- 
