THE STOMACH AND INTESTINES 179 



forceps passed up the oesophagus through the stomach wall 

 when all attempts to move it with the probang had failed.^ 

 The removal of any foreign body from here must always be 

 done as gently as possible, otherwise the pneumogastric 

 nerves, which pass through this opening in the diaphragm, 

 may be seriousl}- injured, and the result may even be fatal. 

 The method of opening the stomach and closing the wound 

 is as already described. 



Aftcr-trcaimcnt consists in keeping the patient as quiet 

 as possible, allowing nothing but a little water, or milk and 

 \\ater, containing boric acid, during the first forty-eight 

 hours, nutrient enemas of beef -tea or mutton broth, or 

 suppositories, being given per rectum e\'er\' four or six hours 

 at discretion. On the third day a little milk, Plasmon, 

 Iknger's Food, or beef-extract by the mouth may be allowed 

 in addition, and at the end of the fifth or sixth day some 

 finely minced raw meat or cooked fish. Care must be taken 

 during the first fortnight that the stomach never becomes 

 distended, on account of the risk of tearing out the sutures. 



Prognosis,. — The prognosis must alwa^'S be guarded, as the 

 operation is a major one ; but if the diagnosis is certain, and 

 the patient not too debilitated, it ought certainly to be adopted 

 if medicinal treatment has failed and the animal's life is per- 

 ceptibly in danger. 



The operations of removal of the stomach or a portion 

 of it (gfastrectomy), or g'astrostomy, the making of a per- 

 manent fistula in it, are hardly likely to be performed in 

 cvery-day veterinary surgery, it being b}' far the most humane 

 plan painlessly to destroy a patient needing either. That 

 each is now possible has been demonstrated repeatedly in 

 human surger)- (chiefly for cancer), the patients' lives being 

 prolonged thereb}', but the author is not aware of any record 

 of this dreaded disease in the stomach of the dog or cat. 



1 Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics, vol. xii., 

 p. 262. 



12 — 2 



