CALCULI IN THE TONSILS.
Diagnosis and treatment of tonsillar calculi; spud; acid dressings. Trauma of soft palate by stick, probang, file, molar. Abscess of palate. Treatment; laxative; expectorant; antiseptic; lancing. Cleft palate and hare lip.
Rudimentary as these organs are in the equine race they are important enough to have become the seat of hard calculous masses. These have been found by Goubaux and Blanc in old asses, and by the author in old horses. They vary in size from a pin’s head to a pea and consist of concentric layers of a granular material arranged around a central nucleus, which is usually a foreign body introduced with the food. This nucleus is usually of a vegetable nature, while the enveloping material is made up largely of the imprisoned and degenerated epithelium of the follicle. Both diagnosis and treatment are difficult in such cases. The adventitious masses should be dislodged by the aid of a smooth, blunt metallic spud, and the surface thereafter washed or swabbed with an antiseptic and astringent solution. Swabbing with a solution of hydrochloric acid will tend to dissolve and remove them.