chap, viii.] THE TONGUE. 105 



longer than usual that the chest could be touched 

 with its tip while the head was held erect. 



In rare cases the fraeninn linguae may be 



abnormally short, constituting the condition known 

 as "tongue-tie," which is really a very uncommon 

 affection. The frsenum when divided should be cut as 

 near the jaw as possible, so as to avoid the ranine 

 vessels. Division of these vessels in relieving tongue- 

 tie has led to fatal haemorrhage, the bleeding being 

 encouraged by the efforts of sucking. " If the frsenum 

 and subjacent muscle fibres be too freely divided, 

 energetic sucking on the part of a hungry child may 

 tear the wound of these very lax tissues farther and 

 farther open, until the tongue, having lost all its 

 anterior support, turns over into the pharynx, and is 

 firmly embraced by the muscles of deglutition, which 

 force it down upon the epiglottis, and the latter upon 

 the larynx, until suffocation is produced " (Holmes' 

 " System of Surgery," vol. ii.). In complete anaesthesia, 

 as in that produced by chloroform, when all the 

 muscular attachments of the tongue are relaxed, the 

 organ is apt to fall back and to press down the epi- 

 glottis, so causing suffocation. 



The tongue is firm and dense, but contains, never- 

 theless, a sufficient amount of connective tissue to 

 cause it to swell greatly when inflamed. Foreign 

 bodies may easily be embedded in its substance. In 

 the Lancet for 1846 is noted a case where a portion 

 of a fork is said to have been buried in the tongue for 

 thirty-two years. The surface epithelium is thick, 

 and in chronic superficial inflammation of the organ 

 it often becomes heaped up, forming dense opaque 

 layers ichthyosis linguae, plaques des fumeurs, 

 leucoma, etc. From the mucous glands, situated 

 chiefly beneath the mucous membrane near the base 

 of the tongue, the mucous cysts are developed that are 

 sometimes met with in this part. 



