100 SURGICAL RELATIONS OF 



intercostal, assisted by the internal mammary and inter- 

 costal arteries, inosculating with the long thoracic, supe- 

 rior thoracic, and acromio-thoracic, and by the inoscula- 

 tion between the superior thoracic and deep epigastric. 



SURGICAL RELATIONS OF THE (ESOPHAGUS IN 

 THE NECK. 



The oesophagus is occasionally the seat of operation, 

 such as for the removal of some foreign body, of the pass- 

 ing of bougies in cases of stricture, or introducing the 

 tube of a stomach-pump. The operation of ossophagotomy 

 is required but rarely, but it may be had recourse to in 

 such cases as impaction of foreign bodies, when the sub- 

 stance can neither be pulled out through the mouth, nor 

 pushed downwards into the stomach, or in such a case as 

 where a substance might be removed through a longi- 

 tudinal wound in the oesophagus, but could not be drawn 

 through the more constricted portion of the tube as, 

 for instance, a set of false teeth, &c. In the neck, it 

 commences as a constriction below the pharynx, having 

 at this point the cricoid cartilage in front, and the fifth 

 cervical vertebra behind it. 



Just at first, it lies in the mesial line of the body, but 

 as it approaches the root of the neck it inclines towards 

 the left side. 



Relations. In front of it lies the trachea, and after it 

 tends to the left side, the left lobe of thyroid body, and 

 the thoracic duct. 



Behind, the cervical vertebrae and left longus colli 

 muscle. 



At the sides, the common carotid vessels, particularly 

 the left, ;th& thyroid body; and- the J recurrent laryngeal 

 nerves. 



