36 
CASES OF (ESOPHAGOTOMY. 
year-old filly, which that day had been sent home to him from 
grass, said to be unwell, and not able to swallow any thing. On 
examination I found a tumour nearly half way down the oesopha- 
gus, feeling as hard as wood, and about the size of a large cocoa-nut. 
All that I could learn from the history of the case, was, that the 
grazier had observed her coughing a great deal during the last eight 
days. I immediately got some thin gruel prepared for her, which 
she eagerly attempted to drink, but could not swallow any of it, for 
it was not able to pass the tumour. 
As no fever existed, I was of opinion it was not a growth, as the 
owner thought, but some foreign body she had picked up, but 
what the nature of it might be I could not hazard an opinion ; and 
it being now dark, and no assistance at hand, I told the owner to 
bring her to me on next morning, which he accordingly did. Having 
in the morning procured assistance, we tried all the usual reme- 
dies that are had recourse to in similar cases, such as the introduc- 
tion of the hand, the probang, &c. But where the hand was small 
enough to go down, the arm was too short to reach the object; and 
as for the probang, I might as well have tried to push it through a 
stone wall. 
Nothing being now left for me to do but to perform oesophagotomy, 
I lost no time in securing her properly, and immediately proceeded 
to cut down upon the tumour ; but before reaching the oesophagus, 
a large quantity of greenish matter, of a very offensive smell, 
escaped, which had collected external to the tumour. 
On opening the oesophagus, which appeared greatly distended, I 
exposed a quantity of well masticated grass, firmly impacted within 
it, which on being all removed weighed upwards of a pound. 
Having sponged out the wound, I brought the edges of the oeso- 
phagus together by stitches, as likewise the skin. I let her get 
up, and then applied a compress and bandage, and turned her into 
a loose box, where she could have nothing to eat. 
In order to disturb the wound as little as possible, I let her have 
nothing but gruel injections for three days, when I allowed her a 
little tepid water to drink, which mostly escaped by the wound, 
along with a large quantity of very unhealthy matter. 
I then thought it would be better to remove the stitches and ex- 
amine the state of the wound, which I did, and found it to present 
a very sloughy appearance ; so having sponged it out, I continued 
to dress it with digestive ointment until the tenth day, still sup- 
porting her with gruel injections. 1 now discovered that the 
raucous membrane of the oesophagus was ruptured on the oppo- 
site side, and separated from the muscular coat, which I believe 
must have been done by the great distention of the membrane 
