LACERATION OE THE (ESOPHAGUS IN A MARE. 547 
Nvith. a good deal of difficulty, several times; though soon 
after, most of it returned through her nose and mouth. 
27th, 9 a.m. —Drank some gruel, but not with the same 
avidity as yesterday. It came back as before. A little pus 
is discharged down the nostrils of an unhealthy character. 
2 p.m. — Presented some water which she drank, but she 
immediately threw it back again. I then tried to pass a small 
long whalebone probang; but which did not pass above ten 
or twelve inches down the throat, and I could not get it 
any further. 
I examined the part of the oesophagus where I thought the 
probang reached to, but I could not detect the least enlarge¬ 
ment or anything stopping there, nor of anything pointed 
coming through the sides. 
28th, 9 a.m. —Sinking fast. Does not care for drinking but 
very little. 
5 p.m. —She drank a little, but soon threw it back again. 
I then turned her round again with the intention of once 
more introducing the probang, but whilst I was stripping my 
sleeves up she fell headforemost into the channel, and I 
thought was dying ; shortly after, however, she got up again, 
and I put her into a stall, and left her there in that state that 
left no doubt of her dying, which she did shortly after. The 
next morning I made a— 
Post-mortem examination in the presence of Mr. Keay, vete¬ 
rinary surgeon of this town, the groom, and another person. 
On tracing the oesophagus from the breast I found it was 
natural, until arriving towards the pharynx, when, for eight 
or ten inches, it was, at its upper part, of a much darker 
colour, and very much thickened, a mass, in fact, of decom¬ 
posed muscle and cellular tissue, in the interior of which there 
was a cavity eight inches long: the opening into it com¬ 
mencing superiorly over the larynx, and proceeding into the 
muscular substance of the superior part of the oesophagus. 
It had evidently been made with some sharp rough instru¬ 
ment. The other portion of the oesophagus was normal. 
Observations .—When I was called in to attend this mare, 
I had no doubt whatever but there was something wrong 
about the oesophagus; but as I did not suspect such an 
injury, I was induced to believe there was obstruction of some 
sort about the fauces or oesophagus, although I considered 
that the symptoms were very much modified, and were not 
at all of that violent nature they generally are when horses 
are choked; since, during the whole period she was ill, she 
never pawed, nor had those continuous violent attacks of 
spasmodic retchings as if wanting to vomit; neither was she 
