836 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1805: 



and his opinion coincided with mine ; 

 which made the patient decide upon 

 having the tumour removed. 



The operation was performed on 

 the 28th of December, 1802. The 

 needle pierced the tongue an inch 

 beyond the tip, a little to the right 

 of the middle line of the tongue ; 

 and the space between the two liga- 

 tures, when they were tied at the 

 circumference of the tongue, was 

 fully an inch. The tongue was 

 thick, and the mass included by the 

 ligatures was such as to make it 

 difficult to compress it. The opera- 

 tion gave considerable pain, of a 

 numbing kind. Immediately after 

 the operation, the ])art included 

 tecame dark coloured, particularly 

 towards the middle line of the 

 tongue. A salivation took place. 

 The next day the pain and salivation 

 ■were great, and the patient could 

 not swallow ; but on the day fol- 

 lowing he could take broth, negus, 

 and other fluids. 



On the sixth day from the opera- 

 tion, the slough became loose; and 

 the least motion of the tongue gave 

 great pain. Upon examining the 

 slough, there was a small spot which 

 looked red, and was surrounded by 

 a dark surface ; this was towards 

 the right side. Upon further exa- 

 mination it appeared, that the liga- 

 ture to the right, had not completely 

 deadened the part at the centre, in 

 which the artery had its course. 

 This accounted for the red spot, as 

 well as for the pain the patient suf- 

 fered; and led me, on the seventh 

 day," to disengage, the ligature on the 

 left, (which was almost completely 

 separated,) by means of a pair of 

 scissars, and pass another ligature 

 through the groove to the opposite 

 side, and tie it over the part not 

 completely deadened. This gave 



great pain for a few hours, which 

 was relieved by the use of tincture 

 of opium. On the eighth day, the 

 patient had less pain than on any 

 preceding day, and less salivation ; 

 and on the ninth, the whole slough 

 came away. On the thirteenth, the 

 tongue had so much recovered itself, 

 that there did not appear any loss 

 of substance whatever, ouly a fissure 

 of half an inch in depth, in the an- 

 terior part of it; and as that now 

 seemed to be exactly in 'he centre, 

 there was not the smallest defor- 

 mity. 



The preceding cases, in the view 

 which it is intended to take in the 

 present paper, are to be considered 

 as so many experiments, by which 

 the structure of the tongue is, in 

 some respects, ascertained : they 

 enable us to draw the following con- 

 clusions. 



The internal structure of the 

 tongue is less irritable than almost 

 any other organised part of the bo- 

 dy; therefore, the peculiar sub- 

 stance which is iiiterposcd between 

 the fasiculi of its muscular fibres, is 

 not in any respect connected with 

 the nerves which pass through its 

 substance to the organ of taste, but 

 is merely a soft medium, to admit 

 of great facility of action in its dif- 

 ferent parts. 



The nerves of the tongue appear 

 to be more readily compressed, and 

 deprived of their power of commu- 

 nicating sensation, than nerves in 

 general ; and any injury done to 

 them is not productive of diseased 

 action in the trunk of the injured 

 nerve. 



If we compare tjie effects of com- 

 pression upon a portion of the 

 tongue, w ith those of a similar com- 

 pression upon the hemorrhoidal 

 veins, when they form piles, or those 



of 



