TUMOURS ABOUT THE HEAD AND THROAT OF CATTLE. 127 
ficiently forward into the inter-maxillary spaces. If I find it 
firmly attached to the apex of the tumour, I then enclose it in 
a curvilinear incision, and proceed to detach the healthy skin to 
beyond the verge of the tumour. 
Its edges being held back by an assistant, the knife is directed 
downwards through the subcutaneous parts, and all those that ex- 
hibit the slightest change from healthy structure are removed. 
By tying any considerable bloodvessel before dividing it, and 
by using the handle of the scalpel and the fingers* in detaching 
the portion of the parotid gland towards the ear, the haemor- 
rhage was always inconsiderable. 
The wound is then treated in the ordinary way, except that de- 
tergents and even antiseptics are often needed to arouse healthy 
action, and the addition of some preparation of iodine is often 
made to the digestive. In directing the constitutional treatment, 
our chief aim must be to support the animal system with plenty 
of gruel until rumination is restored. 
I need not note that the operation should be performed after 
the animal has fasted some hours. 
As the success of the operation depends on an entire removal 
of the diseased parts, and as the submaxillary and parotid gland, 
with important branches of nerves and bloodvessels, are often en- 
veloped therein, we must not hesitate to remove the former nor 
to divide the latter. It has occasionally happened that a rup- 
ture has been made in the oesophagus or pharynx during the 
operation. In that case, a portion of the gruel with which the 
animal is drenched escapes for a few days; but I always found 
that the wound healed by granulation, without any particular 
attention. 
The weight of these tumours varies from a few ounces to some 
pounds. One that I removed from a two-year-old galloway 
bullock, weighed six pounds and a quarter. A considerable por- 
tion of the skin that covered it was excised and included in the 
above weight. It comprehended one of the parotid glands ; and 
I had to divide the trunk of the carotid artery and jugular vein. 
This affection may be distinguished from parotiditis and other 
phlegmasise by the action of constitutional disturbance, and 
heat and tenderness, and by the lingering progress it makes. I 
was once called to a bull labouring under alarming dyspnoea, 
that had gradually increased. No external enlargement was per- 
ceptible; but, on introducing my hand into the mouth, a large 
* This may appear to be a barbarous procedure; but, when young in 
practice, I had to perform oesophagotomy on a heifer for the extraction of a 
potato, and, speaking of the subject to a late bold and experienced military 
surgeon, he advised this inode of division in some situations. 
