210 
RICHARD MIDDLETON. 
a precursory or a contemporaneous disease ; its influence is 
operative only for a brief period, ten minutes, and after its 
expiration the victim experiences no subsequent inconveni¬ 
ence. Very probably this disease has already been frequent¬ 
ly observed, but it has only come under my notice in the last 
decade. The two cases observed by me are as follows: 
Case I. A healthy, well nourished, fat, eight-year-old pug 
dog became attacked with symptoms of the most intense dys¬ 
pnoea. From the apparent danger in which the animal’s life 
was suspended, he was rapidly brought to the hospital for 
small domestic animals attacked to the Berlin veterinary col¬ 
lege. Before this was reached, however, the patient had re¬ 
covered his normal respiration. During a lapse of twenty- 
four hours of close observation, no new attack occurred, and 
the animal was discharged ; but hardly a half hour passed 
after his reception into the house of the owner before a recur¬ 
rence happened, which was as severe as the first paroxysm. 
I answered as soon as possible the request that I should treat 
the dog, but although only twenty minutes had elapsed I ar¬ 
rived too late ; the dyspnoea was past. Upon entering the 
room I found the dog had assumed a half sitting posture, 
with his feet over the side arm of the sofa in the corner of 
which he had had the first paroxysm ; he appeared much ex¬ 
hausted, and viewed his surroundings as though all was 
strange to him. Something was evidently wrong with him ; 
nevertheless, an alteration of the organism, which could ac¬ 
count for the attacks, could not be found. Auscultation as 
well as percussion gave negative results. In three-quarters 
of an hour he dismounted from the sofa, ate sugar, and drank 
water ; later, at the invitation of his mistress, he was ready to 
take a walk. 
Guided bv the history, I thought the difficulty lay in a 
spasmodic closure of the glottis, and prescribed extractum 
hyoscyami 0.30 g. in 30.0 g. of mel. desp., to be given within 
six hours. A third occurrence has not been noted since. 
Unfortunately 1 had not an opportunity to observe the 
symptoms of the case myself; but according to the detailed ac¬ 
count of the owner, they were those of the greatest respira¬ 
tory need: opening of the mouth and extension of the 
