94 
TRACHEOTOMY TUBE AND TROCAR. 
operation. We have known horses grow troublesome while it 
was being performed ; for though all animals will, as a genera^ 
rule, stand perfectly quiet to have the trachea opened, we have 
occasionally met with one that appeared to become excited under 
the sudden feeling of relief thereby afforded. 
Again ; we may state that the operation was, in this country, 
commonly resorted to only in acute cases ; and, consequently, to 
gain the time which would allow an abscess to mature, we, under 
the old plan, took away that which months might be needed to 
restore. Cartilage, being the most lowly organized substance in 
the body, is the one which of all others the surgeon would desire to 
avoid. It is strange in its modes of healing. Often fibrous tissue 
is thrown out, and true cartilage is never reproduced. Occasionally, 
the loss of cartilage is replaced by bone ; and not seldom the wound 
in healing has contracted the tracheal tube, and left the horse a 
confirmed roarer. We shall here make no allusion to abscesses 
and tumours, with many other vexatious incidents. Tracheotomy, 
though not of itself dangerous, and always affording immediate 
relief, used to be in its after-consequences so remarkably uncer- 
tain, that, in our minds, we have debated whether or not the per- 
formance of it could, in veterinary practice, be justified. 
Connected with the old method of operating, there was another 
source of annoyance not altogether unattended with danger. Let 
us suppose the operation to have been most skilfully performed, 
and the ordinary pewter tuble to have been tied on so ver}' neatly 
that it looked like an ornament. Nevertheless, in a little while, 
the lips of the wound begin to swell, and all around the imme- 
diate part enlarges ; and the tube, which looks so very nice at 
first, is thrown out of its place, the inclination of the shield usually 
informing us that the tube is tilted upwards and forwards. As 
we recognize this fact, our reason assures us that the edge of the 
tube is being pressed against the posterior portion of the mucous 
lining membrane, and we fear to calculate the consequences of con- 
tinued, perhaps violent, pressure upon a part so delicate and so 
highly organized. 
We have named the greater number of the annoyances that 
attend upon the old plan of operation, and it is to the removal of 
these that Mr. Gowing has directed his attention. His instrument 
