OPERATION FOR OBSTRUGTIOx^J IN THE GULLET. 281 



by ^le operator, forms a very useful point of support during the use 

 of the tube. The farmer should also have another mouth-piece, with 

 a central hole that will admit of the passage of a small hand. He 

 will thus be enabled to get at and to remove substances that have 

 not descended beyond the commencement of the gullet, or that have 

 been returned so far by means to be hereafter described. This mouth- 

 piece will be very useful in cases of polypus in the nose and many 

 diseases of the pharynx ; but it would be too large to be long con- 

 tinued in the mouth without great pain to the animal, nor could the 

 probang be so securely or effectually worked through so extensive an 

 aperture. It is high time that those rude, dangerous, and ineffectual 

 instruments — the cart-whip, and the cart-rope, and the rack-stick — 

 should be banished from the practice of the veterinary surgeon, and 

 discarded by the farmer too. 



MODE OF OPERATING FOR THE REMOVAL OF SUBSTANCES OBSTRUCTING 



THE GULLET. 



•If a COW has swallowed a potato, or turnip, too large to descend 

 the gullet, and which is arrested in its progress, and evidently seen 

 at a certain distance down the throat, the farmer should have imme- 

 diate recourse to the oesophagus-tube, introducing the flatter end 

 into the throat, and using moderate force. If the obstructing body 

 yield to this, he will be justified in pushing it on within the chest; 

 but if, with the application of a fair degree of force, it is very slowly 

 and with difficulty pushed on, the operator should instantly rehn- 

 quish the determination to drive it down, for the fibres of the mus- 

 cular coat of the gullet soon become irritated by the continued 

 distension, and contract powerfully, and, as it were, spasmodically, 

 upon the foreign body, and imprison it there. It should also be re- 

 membered that the gullet itself becomes smaller as soon as it has 

 entered the thorax ; and, consequently, that which can be moved 

 only with difficulty in the upper part of the neck, will not be moved 

 at all in the lower portion of it. 



The next consideration then is, whether, although the obstiucting 

 body cannot be driven on, it may not be solicited, or forced back- 

 ward. The fibres of the upper part of the gullet have already 

 yielded, and suffered this substance to pass them — they are Some- 

 what weakened by the unnatural distension — they have not yet had 

 time to recover their tone, and they may yield again. It is at least 

 worth the trial. 



The internal coat of the oesophagus is naturally smooth and 

 glistening ; it may, however, be made more so, and the surface of 

 the obstructing body may be polished too. A half-pint of olive oil 

 should be poured down the threat, and an attempt then made with 

 the fingers, applied externally, to give the body a retrograde motion. 

 By patient manipulation this will be effected much oftener than ia 



