370 OPEBATIONS ON THE DIGESTIVE APPARATUS. 



strument. Lacerations of the oesophageal walls, rupture of blood 

 vessels, perforation of the trachea, abscesses of the mediastines, 

 pleurisy and pericarditis belong to the list of recorded casualties 

 in this connection. To facilitate the working of the probang, in 

 these cases, certain practitioners have recommended the adminis- 

 tration of oil or mucilaginous drenches. 



The Taxis. 



The oesophageal catheterism which we have just considered is 

 principally applicable to cases where the obstruction is in the 

 thoracic portion of the passage. When it is in the cervical por- 

 tion, instead oi pi'opulsion or intra^yulsion, it is by extraindsion., 

 or by the course of the natural passages that the foreign body is 

 to be removed. In this case the taxis is made to take the place 

 of the ordinary artificial appliances, and the hands become the in- 

 struments with which the surgeon seeks, by making forcible and 

 methodical pressure, to move the impacted object back into the 

 mouth. 



In 1820, Delafoy recommended a process which is to-day ad- 

 mitted to be one of the best modes of reheving cattle when suf- 

 fering with this difficulty, and many other methods have since 

 then been devised, but most of them are merely modified plans of 

 Delafoy's method. We shall consider them as briefly as possible. 

 In order to raise the iinpac.t (as we shall for convenience call it) 

 back into the pharynx, Delafoy has the animal thrown, on the 

 right side, and administers a glass of sweet olive oil, and while 

 an assistant steadies the oesophagus, applies with his fingers upon 

 the impact, a retrograde motion which carries it upward, back 

 and to the pharjnix. When it reaches that cavity, the head is 

 raised, the jaws are opened with a speculum, and the operator, 

 passing his hand through that instrument into the back of the 

 mouth, seizes the impact and brings it away. Lindenberg keeps 

 the patient on his feet instead of casting him, but otherwise ob- 

 serves the same modus operandi. Denenbourg operates with his 

 patient in a standing position. While an assistant holds the 

 head, well extended, and elevated on the neck, he places himself 

 on the right side of the animal, and with the fingers pressing be- 

 low the impact (like Delafoy), displaces it and gives it the as- 

 cending motion which transfers it to the pharynx, and keeps it 

 there by pressing hard below it. Then putting an assistant in his 



