It produces reflex irritation by compressing the pneumo-gastric and laryngeal nerves, and is indicated by loud, spasmodic coughing.
Treatment consists in administering iodide and bromide of potassium, terpine, in doses of 1 drachm per day for adults, essence of turpentine and tar water.
Tuberculous inflammation of glands, inseparable from pulmonary tuberculosis, has very special characteristics peculiar to tuberculosis.
Inflammation due to lymphadenitis is also very easy to diagnose as a rule, in consequence of the symmetrical enlargement of lymphatic glands elsewhere.
TUMOURS OF THE MEDIASTINUM.
Sarcomata, carcinomata, lymphomata, and lympho-sarcomata all occur in the mediastinum. They attack young healthy animals, and sometimes develop with such rapidity that in a few weeks they become generalised and invade the heart, lungs, and principal viscera. Their cause is as yet unknown.
Symptoms. At first sight the symptoms are much like those of pericarditis caused by foreign bodies. They consist in deformity of the presternal region, swelling of the jugulars, submaxillary œdema, irregular pretracheal tumefaction, etc.
The tumour, whatever its nature, commences in the mediastinum, develops towards the entrance to the chest, where it projects, and before long produces in the pretracheal region clearly marked œdematous swelling.
Between the two first ribs the tumour compresses the carotids, the jugulars, the nerve trunks, and also the trachea and œsophagus, producing difficulty in the return circulation, especially in the jugulars, swelling in the submaxillary space, loss of appetite and dyspnœa.
Palpation affords indication of a tumour of soft consistence, bosselated, more or less adherent to the skin, usually painless on pressure, and of irregular development. Compression of the œsophagus interferes with the deglutition of rough forage, impedes rumination, prevents eructation, and thus produces trifling but permanent tympanites.