FISTULA OF THE EYE-PIT. 153 



" The bad smell which was exhaled from this ulcer made me 

 think that there was caries of the sphenoid bone. I cauterized it, 

 and, in order to reach the bone without injuring the surrounding 

 parts, I passed my cautery, at a white heat, through a metallic 

 tube. By these means the fistula became considerably enlarged, 

 and the lotions and injections were more easily applied. 



"About a year after this metallic wire had been adopted, I 

 chanced to see the animal again. When it drank, a portion of the 

 water escaped through the fistulous opening : a portion of the fo(»d 

 likewise followed the same route, and frequently obstructed the 

 passage. Then, when no water could ascend or pus descend, the 

 horse lost his spirits, and would not eat ; but when a sound was 

 passed, and water, with a small portion of spirit added to it, was 

 injected, the animal's spirits and appetite immediately returned. 



" Thus he continued for another twelvemonth. He was constantly 

 used, and did his full share of work. Some of the water, as he 

 was drinking, escaped through the pit above the eye. Beyond 

 this he did not appear to be incommoded by the fistula. I attached 

 a large piece of copper to his head harness, in order to prevent 

 any foreign bodies from entering or falling into this chasm. T saw 

 him often, I rode him when I wanted him, and in 1832 he was 

 given to the hospital of Pezenas, where he was employed in turn- 

 ing a rude kind of mechanism, for the purpose of drawing water 

 for that establishment. He is there at the present moment (1838). 

 The hollow of the pit is now enormously increased. It is become 

 infundibuliform, and it will hold more than half a pint of fluid. 

 The skin is considerably distended there, and clings to the bone, 

 in proportion as the adipose body which should naturally occupy 

 this cavity is wasted away. There is no other wound than the 

 canal which penetrates into the mouth. Notwithstanding all this 

 disease in its immediate neighbourhood, the eye is not in the 

 slightest degree injured. 



VOL liL X 



