138 SURGICAL APPLIED ANATOMY. [Chap. ix. 



lodged for two years in this cavity without much 

 inconvenience to its host. In one strange case a 

 bronchial gland found its way into the trachea by 

 producing ulceration of that tube, was coughed up, 

 and became impacted in the rima glottidis. The 

 patient was saved from immediate suffocation by 

 tracheotomy. 



The thyroid body. Each lobe should measure 

 about 2 inches in length, about 1J inches in breadth, 

 and | of an inch in thickness at its largest part. 

 When distinctly beyond these measurements the 

 thyroid may be considered to be enlarged. Its usual 

 weight is between one and two ounces. It is larger 

 in females than in males, and the right lobe is usually 

 larger than the left. In connection with these matters 

 it may be noted that thyroid enlargements (broncho- 

 cele, goitre) are more common in females than in males, 

 and in any case are more apt to be first noticed on the 

 right side. The body being closely adherent to 

 the trachea and larynx, it follows that it moves 

 up and down during deglutition, and this circum- 

 stance is of the utmost value in the diagnosis of 

 bronchocele from other cervical tumours. The thyroid 

 when enlarged may distort and narrow the trachea, 

 and this is all the more likely to be the case when the 

 enlargement occurs rapidly, since the body is held 

 down by the sterno-hyoid, sterno-thyroid, and omo- 

 hyoid muscles. In some cases, therefore, of dyspnoea 

 produced by rapidly growing bronchoceles, Bonnet 

 has proposed subcutaneous section of these muscles, 

 Since the isthmus must bind together the enlarging 

 lobes of a bronchocele, Sir Duncan Gibb, on the other 

 hand, proposed to divide the isthmus in cases where 

 dyspnoea resulted. This operation he performed 

 several times with great relief to the patient. The 

 thyroid body is very vascular, and is invested by 

 a thin capsule. In removing the gland (and many 



