A SINGULAR CASE. 
529 
sity. I admit that, as a body, we need it vastly. But until 
you can educate those who employ us, or ought to employ 
us, as well, the scientific veterinarian must have a hard 
fight unless this same humbug is called in to his assistance. 
Armed with this he may probably succeed: let him eschew 
its aid, and the merest pretender, the most ridiculous and 
ignorant quack, with a fair share of impudence, will very 
likely beat him in the race. 
Notwithstanding all this, however, my admiration of such 
adjuncts, and my knowledge of their utility—like most of 
those who will read this article, I suppose, I am but a sorry 
professor of them myself; and, therefore, I forbore, in this 
instance, to give an exact definition of the nature of my 
patient’s malady to the owner. I told him simply that it was 
an obscure case, and very likely he was satisfied; for I had 
had many previous opportunities of winning his confidence. 
There being some soreness of throat, as I have already stated, 
and the pulse being high, I commenced my treatment by 
stimulating over the region of the windpipe, and administer^ 
ing fever medicine. But a few days’ trial of these means was 
sufficient to convince me of their total inefficiency. Without 
any change in the symptoms, the poor animal’s sufferings 
seemed gradually to increase in intensity. His debility was 
excessive, and he continued to sink rapidly. Tonics were 
had recourse to,—the sulphate of copper and gentian,—but in 
vain. The paroxysms became more frequent; he never 
seemed, even for a moment, relieved by anything that was 
done for him ; and, on the evening of the 26th, fifteen days 
after I first saw him, he died, notwithstanding that, at times, 
he ate ravenously to the last, worn almost to a skeleton. 
And now the mystery was to be cleared up. I was, of 
course, too much interested in the case to let slip the oppor¬ 
tunity of making a post-mortem investigation ; and, accord¬ 
ingly, at some personal inconvenience, I attended on the 
following day for this purpose. The chest and abdomen 
were laid open in the usual manner, but the viscera of both 
these cavities were in a perfectly sound and healthy condition. 
In that portion of the peritoneum, however, which lines the 
abdominal muscles, numerous patches of inflammation were 
visible ; and a nearer examination discovered underneath the 
membrane, and in the cellular tissue between this and the 
muscles themselves, an immense number of worms . These 
parasites were diffused in this situation over the entire sur¬ 
face of the walls of the abdomen, and, I am sure, I do not in 
any way exaggerate, when I say there were hundreds of them . 
From what I know of such things, I should say they were of 
