SPASMS OF THE MUSCLES OF THE EPIGLOTTIS. 
549 
the gash I had cut in his neck made him look like he had his 
throat cut. He had traveled in the right direction, so he was on 
the hill that had caused his spasm the night before. The first 
mile we had to drive him was all down hill, and he took a fast 
trot and kept it up to the bottom. The next half mile was up 
hill, and I would have to stop every little ways and let him rest 
and get his breath. He did not choke down because when the 
larynx would close entirely, air would enter the lungs through the 
opening in the trachea. From the top of this hill it was all down 
grade to the ranch, and we got him into the corrals without any 
further trouble. I got him halter-broken without another spasm, 
and turned him loose in our stock-yards, to keep him until 4 1 could 
have a stable completed where I intended to keep him. In catch¬ 
ing him to take him from the stock-yard and put him into the sta¬ 
ble, he took another spasm and choked down and straightened out 
as before. I cut the old opening (which had partially healed up) 
open again, and the effect was the same as before. I did not fas¬ 
ten the tube in because I did not have a tracheotomy tube, and 
the only thing I had was a small brass tube, and I was afraid of 
blood-poison. He got along nicely after this spasm until some 
time in January, which was about two months and a half after he 
had the first spasm. Then he took what 1 call the “ Texas itch.” 
He began to get poor and broke out all over. I decided to use a 
dope with which I had successfully treated over two hundred 
mare. In doping him he took his fatal spasm. He stood on his 
feet for about fifteen minutes, biting, striking or kicking when¬ 
ever I would go near him; then he fell to the ground with his 
head drawn down between his fore legs, and before I could 
straighten it out he was dead. I cut out the larynx, trachea, and 
lungs, and found them to be in a perfectly normal and natural 
condition. 1 was not satisfied with my examination, so I took 
them to Meeker and had a surgeon examine them, and he said 
that they were perfectly normal, and that the disease was entirely 
spasmodic. 
In the summer of 1887 we had another grade Pereheron 
three-year-old stallion die with this same disease. He died on the 
range, so I do not know very much about his case. I only know 
