RUPTURE OF THE TRACHEA. 
3(>5 
siderably so, but this is made up by increased violence while 
they do last; in her comparatively quiet moments there is greater 
and greater distress, if we attempt to cheat her now and then 
with the morphia, she turns sulky, and will not touch any kind 
of food for many hours afterwards. With the emetic tartar we 
do occasionally succeed. 
June l5^.—This morning she was found dead. There was no 
disease in the abdominal cavity; but the lungs were in a state 
of great congestion, and the membrane of the bronchi was 
almost black. The cause of all her suffering was in the trachea. 
About half way down the throat one of the cartilaginous rings 
was actually torn from another. The strong elastic ligamentary 
band which united them was ruptured—dissevered—and nothing 
remained but a small quantity of cellular membrane, and that 
was almost perforated on the left side of the tube. There had 
been considerable effusion of blood in the cellular texture, and 
much discoloration still remained. There had, however, been 
no perforation of the skin, or we must have seen it. 
Nature had been at work to repair the mischief, and had 
formed a fibrous substance between the severed cartilages : but, 
unfortunately, she had made it project inwards, and had so far 
diminished the calibre of the windpipe at that place, that my 
little finger would not pass through the stricture. This was the 
source of the evil. Much inflammation was set up, and the act 
of inspiration being naturally longer than that of expiration, and 
the air more rapidly hurried through the windpipe, and now being 
arrested in its course by the stricture, much inflammation would 
be set up in the lower portion of the trachea and the bronchial 
passages. They would be irritated by the presence and pressure 
of this undue portion of retained air; and hence the inflamma¬ 
tion of the bronchial membrane, and the spasmodic character 
which, from causes that have never been sufficiently explained, 
attended the periodical exacerbation of this bronchial disease. 
The mischief was probably done by the male Sambur deer, 
who was in the next box, and who is a sadly ferocious fellow. 
The point of one of his antlers is exceedingly sharp. He may 
have struck violently at her; the skin being here very moveable, 
might yield before the pressure and escape perforation; but the 
blow coming precisely between two of the cartilages of the wind¬ 
pipe, and that tube being little extensible, the laceration was 
effected. 
A case of rupture of the trachea, but more fortunate in its 
termination, was related of a mare, in a veterinary journal of 
former days. The trachea was here perforated, which sufficient¬ 
ly accounts for the difference of symptoms. 
VOL. XI. 3 c 
