TRACHEOTOMY. 163 



operator has neither light sufficient, assistance enough, 

 or a patient capable of steadying its limbs. He acts under 

 every disadvantage, and, to add to his confusion, is the fact 

 that the case generally is one which admits of no delay. 

 With inefficient means, everything must be done in haste, 

 and, when all is over, the surgeon will oftener wonder how 

 any operation was performed, than be able to think whether 

 all was done as drawing-room writers direct. 



Under these circumstances it is always well to be pro- 

 vided with a needle and thread. After the windpipe has 

 been cut into, and the animal in some measure relieved, but 

 before the piece of cartilage is excised, the needle should 

 pierce and the thread be fastened to the portion of the 

 windpipe to be removed. This simple resort prevents the 

 portion of cartilage being drawn upon the bronchi, and thus 

 becoming an additional impediment to the breathing. 



The trachea being exposed, the point of a narrow-bladed 

 scalpel is to be thrust through its substance, and with 

 this a circular piece is excised, being separate portions of 

 two cartilaginous rings. The object is to remove a piece 

 of the tube about an inch in diameter. This done, a canula 

 is introduced into the windpipe, and confined there by 

 tapes carried from it around the animaFs neck. A piece of 

 elder, about three inches in length, with a notch cut round 

 the middle, will answer the purpose, though a tube made of 

 ivory, pewter, or box- wood, with shoulders to it, and holes 

 through the shoulders, will be found still better adapted. 

 The tube should be altogether three inches long, so that it 

 may reach some way within the canal of the windpipe. After 

 the performance of the operation, and the introduction of 

 the tube, the animal will exhibit some such appearance as is 

 represented in the following woodcut : 



