478 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



the stomach of the animal, and thus speedily and effectually 

 evacuate the air. The tube is to be composed of iron wire, as 

 large as a common stocking wire, or about one-sixteenth part of 

 an inch in diameter, twisted round a smooth iron rod, three- 

 eighths of an inch in diameter, in order to give it a cylindrical 

 form ; and after taking off the rod, it is to be covered with smooth 

 leather. 



To the end of the tube which is intended to be passed into 

 the stomach, a brass pipe, two inches long, of the same size as 

 the tube, and pierced with a number of large holes, must be 

 firmly connected. 



In order that the tube may be prevented from bending too 

 much within the gullet, at the time of passing it down into the 

 stomach, an iron wire, one-eighth of an inch in diameter, and of 

 the same length as the tube, is put within it, which is to be with- 

 drawn when the tube has entered the stomach. 



He has ascertained that the space from the fore teeth of the 

 under jaw, to the bottom of the first stomach of a large ox, 

 measures about six feet, and he has passed such a tube, five feet 

 and nine inches long, into the gullet and stomach of a living ox. 

 The tube ought therefore to be six feet in length, or rather 

 longer, that it may be sure of answering in the largest ox. 



After the tube has passed into the stomach, it may be allowed 

 to remain for any length of time ; as when it is pressed to one 

 side of the throat, it does not intercept the breathing of the ani- 

 mal. The greatest part of the elastic and condensed^fixed air 

 will be readily discharged through the tube ; and if it be thought 

 necessary, the remainder of it, or the superfluous drink, may be 

 sucked out by a bellows fixed to the upper end of the tube, with 

 two valves, one at its muzzle, and the other at the side of it, so 

 disposed as to allow the air to pass in the direction from the 

 stomach upwards. 



By means of such a tube, the air is not only more certainly 

 discharged than by stabbing the animal, but the dangers avoided 

 which are occasioned by stabbing, not so much by the irritation 

 which the wound creates, as that the air, and the other contents 

 of the stomach, getting into the cavity of the belly, between the 

 containing parts and the bowels, excite such a degree of inflam- 

 mation as frequently proves fatal to the animal. This tube will 

 also be found useful for the purpose of introducing into the stom- 



