OPERATIONS ON THE TON&UE. 361 



the jaws. During the treatment the animal is to be fed with 

 liquid or semi-liquid food, as mashes and gruels of all kinds, with 

 teas, milk, etc. It is only when the stitches are all united 

 that the animal can be brought by degrees to its ordinary diet. 

 After several days the sutures can be removed. 



Amputation, or Glossotomy. 



When the sutures have failed, or when the peduncle which 

 holds the divided portions of the tongue together is too small to 

 permit the processes of circulation and nutrition to go on, the in- 

 dications are to amputate the part of the tongue below it. This 

 is done with the scissors ; the hemorrhage that may f oUow is sel- 

 dom serious, and soon ceases spontaneously, or yields to the use 

 of hemostatics. Sometimes, instead of direct amputation, or in 

 order to avoid the hemorrhage, the removal of the divided portion 

 is effected with an elastic Ugature — a mode of treatment also com- 

 monly used for the removal of lingual tumors. The ecraseur has 

 also been recommended, on account of the absence of hemorrhage 

 attending its use. The animal whose tongue has been amputated 

 eats slowly and with difficulty. His prehension of liquids is also 

 necessarily interfered with. It requires time and practice for 

 him to acquire facUity in performing the old functions with 

 curtailed means. 



Adenotomy. 



This operation consists in the dissection and removal of such 

 of the glands as are accessible and amenable to that method of 

 treatment, including the lymphatic and salivary, and is described 

 as parotidian or maxiUary, as one gland or the other becomes the 

 subject of operation. The extirpation of these organs is indica^ 

 ted by pathological changes occurring in their structure, as in 

 cases of chronic infiltration following a suppurative process, as 

 seen in the lymphatic glands of the inter-maxiQary space after 

 strangles, and again when they become the seat of scirrous de- 

 generation, or of melanotic deposits, or in cases of saHvary fistula 

 complicated with loss of substance of the excretory ducts. 



Parotidian adenotomy is a very delicate operation, and has, 

 therefore, been but seldom attempted. To Leblanc, in 1822, is 

 due the record of its first performance, and of the advantages 

 attending it. A reference to Figures 396 and 397, which show 



