TRACHEOTOMY. 



1045 



cleaned and moved every day. A discharge is soon set up, which 

 has a tendency to remove any deep-seated, morbid action. ^ 



Tracheotomy. 



It sometimes happens that from the tumefaction of strangles, 

 the impaction of foreign bodies, and other sudden causes of ob- 

 struction, the life of the patient is threatened from suffocation. It 

 is found necessary to open the windpipe to avert the untoward i-e- 

 sult, until the cause of the obstruction be removed. 



It consists in making an incision through the skin, and muscles 

 in the mesian line down on the trachea, or V\^indpipe, cutting 

 through two rings of this tube, and inserting a bent tube, which is 

 usually made of block-tin, with a broad flange, to which tapes or 

 straps are attached to tie it round the neck. It is usually em- 

 ployed to give temporary relief ; but I have known horses to work 

 with a tube in the windpipe for years. It must be frequently 

 taken out and cleaned. When the cause of the obstruction is re- 

 moved, the tube is Avithdrawn, and the edges of the skin being 

 scarified, they are carefully brought together, and treated as a 

 simple wound. 



Docking, Nicking, etc. 



This was a very common operation thirty years ago, but has 

 now gone into en- 

 tire disuse. Like 

 high checking, it 

 is not only need- 

 less, but cruel. 

 There are, how- 

 ever, some cases 

 in which it may 

 be resorted to with 

 advantage, and on 

 this account I in- 

 clude illustrations 



Fig. 891. — Showing the methods of severing the 

 depressing ligaments, from the French. 



showing the method of doing it. The principal one is when the 

 hor.se switches and becomes dangerous when the rein is caught 

 under the tail. The action being involuntary, it cannot practic- 

 ally be broken up by treatment In such a case raising the tail 

 will be found efFectual, 



