328 STABLE MANUAL AND HORSE DOCTOR 



Mr. King was summoned to a horse that had had a ball 

 administered to him by the groom, wrapped up in wiiting- 

 paper ; since which he had ejected everything he had eaten 

 or drunk. A prominence appeared in the neck, a little 

 above its middle ; but all means to force the obstructing 

 body onwards were without avail. At length he determined 

 on cutting down upon the oesophagus ; having done which 

 — without opening the tube — he found the obstruction 

 arose from the lodgment of the ball the groom had given. 

 Feeling the tumour soft and compressible, he squeezed and 

 kneaded it with his fingers and thumb for some time — after 

 which he left it in statu quo. Shortly afterwards the ball 

 was by natural efforts carried down into the stomach ; and 

 liquids were taken and easily passed. It was not for some 

 time, however, that the animal became enabled to take 

 solids into his stomach. They were rejected through the 

 mouth and nose the moment they had descended as low as 

 the place where the ball had stopped. Mr. King thought 

 that this must have been owing to the presence of a 

 stricture — an opinion he conceived warrantable from the 

 circumstances of the ball being in itself but a small one, 

 and of soft composition, yet incapable of being stirred by 

 the probaiig. 



CUTTING INTO THE THROAT. 



When the means detailed under the head of choking 

 prove ineffectual for the removal of the foreign body 

 obstructing the canal of the oesophagus, the operation of 

 cutting into the tube, " oesophagotomy," is our resource, 

 unless it happen that the obstruction is below the neck, 

 when no knife can reach it. The same operation may 

 likewise be practised with a view of overcoming stricture, 

 or for the purpose of injecting medicinal or alimentary 

 matters into the stomach, when there is no possibility of 

 introducing them through the mouth. In the hands of a 

 competent veterinary surgeon there is nothing to dread 

 in the performance of oesophagotomy ; although, from the 

 oesophagus lying behind the windpipe, and much deeper, 

 and there being the jugular veins and carotid arteries, the 

 par vagum, and sympathetic and recurrent nerves by the 

 sides of the trachea, the scalpel requires to be handled with 

 caution as well as skill. 



