[ 308 ] 



LVII. Le/^cr ^row John Pollock, Esq. of JSLountainn- 

 toun, Nai'an, to the Reverend Dr. Lyster, respecting a 

 Surgical Operation pcifonned on a Heifer*. 



_ DEAR SIR, 



X RRHAPS the following communication may be thought 

 worth promulgating by the society. 



I have bred some very fine heifers of the long-horned 

 Leicestershire breed. One of them lately was seized with 

 a complaint in the throat, attended with a difficulty of 

 breathing, and an apparent difficulty in swallowing ; both 

 which symptoms increased, notwithstanding the applica- 

 tions and exertions of all the experienced herds and people 

 npar me who had the reputation of skill in curing those 

 disorders to which cows are liable : in a few davs the heifer 

 refused to take any food, and, being considered as incura- 

 ble, she was killed. I had her throat opened, and found 

 that an excrescence of flesh, or polypus, had grown some- 

 what below the root of the tongue, to the si;u^ and nearly 

 of the shape of a kidney, sr^ve that it had plainly a neck or 

 root from which it grew, and that this polypus had nearly 

 covered both the throat and windpipe of the animal ; 

 and further, that the excrescence was in a general state of 

 putrefaction. I lamented a good deal the loss of the heifer; 

 but in a few days after I was much concerned to observe 

 that another of my stock, of the same breed and age, (now 

 rising four years old,) discovered exactly the same sym- 

 ptoms, and progressively grew worse, being scarcely able 

 to breathe, and refusing all kind of food. I had heard of 

 a surgical operation in cutting out a polypus from the hu- 

 jiiannose: I at length determined to try the experiment 

 on my heifer: for that purpose I threw the animal down 

 by ropes ; and having tied her legs, and got sufficient as- 

 sistance to keep down her head, I opened^ under the inser- 

 tion of the jaw-bone, a passage by the side of the wind- 

 pipe completely into her throat (taking great care to avoid 

 the great veins and arteries in the side of the neck) suffi- 

 ciently large to admit a man's hand. I then made my 

 steward put his hand into the wound and take hold of the 

 polypus, and pull it with some force out of the wound, so 

 that the neck of it was visible. I then cut off the polypus, 

 sewed up the wound, leaving however a seton in it, and 

 untied the heifer : for the remainder of the day she refused 



' From TranrartioJis of the Dublin Society, vol. iii. 



both 



