OPERATIONS ON THE CKSOPHAGUS. 373 



oesopliagiis was first made, with a straight tenotome, below the 

 obstruction, then a curved tenotome was introduced through the 

 wound, and by careful movements in the mass of impact, it was 

 sufficiently divided to enable it to resume its usual course down- 

 ward into the rumen. Though this mode of operation has not 

 become established in general practice, the application of its prin- 

 ciple has not been overlooked, and has not been without its influ- 

 ence in simplifying the performance of the operation of oesopha- 

 gotomy. 



CESOPHAGOTOMY. 



When the obstruction is in the cervical portion of the oesopha- 

 gus, and, either because of its nature or of its form, cannot be 

 displaced by any of the means we have discussed, the division of 

 the organ itself furnishes the only escape from the consequences 

 of the difficulty. The operation of oesophagotomy consists in the 

 exposure of the oesojohagus and the incision of its walls. While 

 it is usually performed for the removal of obstrvicting bodies, it is 

 also indicated in some cases as a mode of facilitating the adminis- 

 tration of drugs, or, under special circumstances, of food and 

 drinks. 



It is of French origin, and its adoption in veterinary surgery 

 seems to have occurred in 1782, when it was performed by Lom- 

 pagieu Lapole to remove an orange, arrested in the inferior region 

 of the neck. Since that epoch it has been performed on horses, 

 cattle, dogs, and even on swine. Damoiseau, Felix, Michel and 

 others have performed it on cattle ; Thissine, H. Bouley, Keynal, 

 Rey, Marrel, Mauri on the horse; Peuch, Macgillivray, Williams, 

 on dogs, and Lagrange on pigs. H. Bouley performed it to re- 

 move a piece of corncob and^ a large molar tooth which, after ex- 

 traction, had slipped into the CBSophagus; Baldwin extracted a 

 large piece of a root; Rey removed a cork; Peuch took away 

 pieces of bone from a dog. In fact, the operation has generally, 

 if not exclusively, as is but natural, been appropriated to the relief 

 of patients laboring under the difficulty we have been discussing. 

 A claim has been made in its behalf as a means of rehef in lock- 

 jaw, by facilitating the artificial feeding of the sufi'erer. But such 

 a claim, as to any practical value which may be supposed to attach 

 to it, cannot in, anywise possess any validity, nor be to any extent 

 sustained when we take into consideration the history and the 



