S52 TRACHEOTOMY. 



genuityin producing it. Pointed instruments have been before 

 used, but far inferior in their arrangement. 



TRACHEOTOMY. 



This operation is occasionally called for in cases of strangles, 

 when the swelling threatens suffocation, as it is often the only 

 means of saving the animal's life. It consists in making a lon- 

 gitudinal incision through the skin immediately over the wind- 

 pipe and below the larynx, cutting through the cartilaginous 

 rings (two or more, as occasion requires), and inserting in the 

 opening a tube of silver made for the purpose, through which 

 the animal breathes, instead of through the nostrils. A circular 

 piece is sometimes cut out of the windpipe in order to admit the 

 tube more freely, which is certainly the better mode of perform- 

 ing the operation. In a case of emergency, a piece of elder 

 with the pith pushed out will answer temporary purposes. It 

 should be well secured from slipping into the windpipe by 

 means of a piece of string. 



