98 THEORY AND PRACTICE 



pass the hand into the mouth with the front of the hand against 

 the cheek and feel the probe as it comes up. 



Suppose the accident came from the kick of another horse on 

 the cheek. The main damage, was a bruise on the jaw bone. 

 This resulted in inflammation, exudation, organization and final- 

 ly complete obliteration of the duct. This is frequently the case. 

 We find that the organized lymph is not as tough as the wall of 

 the tube and with pressure you can work an opening through 

 into the mouth, a small one anyway. Take a brass or silver 

 probe and run a piece of tape through the eye of it, drawing it 

 into the mouth from the outside. Leave it there three days, then 

 remove it and syringe it out. Clean the outer surface around 

 the opening, scarify the edges of the fistula freely and trim it 

 out to make a raw edge. Put a continuous suture around the 

 opening and draw it up like a draw-string, using a solution of 

 collodion to wash it. Do not give the horse anything to eat ; tic 

 his head up for about three days and give him plenty of water. 

 This reduces to the maximum the secretion of saliva. After 

 three days give him^ a little fine hay, letting him eat it off the 

 floor. While he is eating the saliva will run out through the 

 mouth. If this treatment does not succeed, then put on a fly 

 blister. This stimulation will produce a local inflammation and 

 increase the repairing process. Repeat if not successful the first 

 time. Some surgeons recommend to destroy the parotid gland 

 in bad cases, but this cannot be condemned too strongly. It is 

 very painful and produces very unsatisfactory results. 



SALIVARY CALCULI. 



Salivary calculi are calcareous concretions which are found 

 usually in the duct of Steno on the broad side of the cheek about 

 opposite the lower molars. Probably every calculus has a nucle- 

 us, some foreign body which has worked itself into the duct of 

 Steno through the mouth. It may be a little piece of barley or 

 a wheat beard, hull of oats, buckwheat, etc. If this happens it 

 seems never to get out and produces a little local irritation, 

 enough to change the character of the secretion in the duct. The 

 salivary salts accummulate around and on the body and finally 



