CHAPTER IV. 



DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



RINGING PIGS. 



This operation is customary in countries where pigs are allo^Yed to 

 roam more or less at liberty, and it is necessary to adopt some pre- 

 caution to prevent them from uprooting the soil and thus causing 

 damage, but the practice tends nowadays to disappear. It simply 



consists in passing through the 

 nose some object which on 

 being rubbed against anything 

 causes pain and thus checks 

 the animal's natural proclivity. 

 Numerous methods have 

 been suggested. One of the 

 simplest is as follows : The 

 animal having been cast, suit- 

 ably secured and muzzled, two 

 thick iron wires sharpened at 

 the ends are passed through 

 the snout, and the two ends 

 are then twisted together in 

 the form of two rings. These 

 can, if necessary, be united. 

 Another method, perhaps even more efficacious, consists in bending 

 a thick wire into the shape of the letter (J, and preparing a small 

 metal plate with two holes corresponding in position to the distance 

 between the two nostrils. The ends of the wire, being sharpened, are 

 passed through the nostrils and securely united to the metal plate by 

 being bent into a spiral or simply at right angles. 



Fig. 300. 



Ringing" the pig. 



OESOPHAGUS. 



The operations practised on the oesophagus comprise passage of 

 the oesophageal sound or probang, taxis, crushing of foreign bodies 

 within the oesophagus, and oesophagotomy. 



