199 
CESOPHAGUS OF CATTLE. 
lower. By tapping gently but repeatedly, I found that I was 
gaining a little ground, and presently, on pressing firmly and 
equably on the probang, it passed into the stomach. A prodi¬ 
gious quantity of gas was extricated, with some very black fluid. 
The cow speedily decreased in size, and was evidently relieved. 
The probang was withdrawn with a little difficulty and return¬ 
ed more readily, but not with perfect ease. This I attributed to 
its being entangled in some of the folds or lacuiim _of the 
oesophagus. 
The animal still labouring under considerable excitement, I 
ordered her to be bled, and thinking that she was then safe, 
departed. In the course of the night she died. I was not pre¬ 
sent at the dissection, but the gardiner reported that quite at 
the lower part of the gullet a piece of parsnip root two inches 
long was firmly fixed with the smaller end downward ; that 
the centre of it was decayed, and had been sufficiently perforat¬ 
ed to admit the probang, and that the ' hole had been closed 
again with a kind of mucous matter and half-digested food. 
I am not aware that, the parsnip being forced so far down the 
oesophagus, any other course could have been pursued, or that 
much blame can attach to me for mistaking the passage of the 
probang through the parsnip for the dislodgement of the body : 
if there be blame, let others profit by my error. ' I am in¬ 
duced however to offer a few remarks on the proper course to be 
pursued when foreign bodies are lodged in the oesophagus of 
cattle. It is an accident of no rare occurrence, and sometimes 
not a little puzzling and troublesome. 
I would premise that the muscular coats of the oesophagus 
are differently constructed, and far more powerful in cattle than 
in the horse. In the horse, the-fibres of the external layer are 
longitudinal, and the inner layer circular. In cattle the fibres 
of both are oblique, the external approaching somewhat nearer 
to a circular direction, and they cross each other at very acute 
angles. Thus both unite in effecting the double purpose of 
shortening and dilating the tube. The two opposite functions 
of the gullet of the ox, to swallow the food, and to return it for 
rumination, require this structure. Both layers are likewise 
considerably thicker and stronger than in the horse. They 
therefore contract very powerfully on any body which passes 
over or is lodged upon them : and, when they have been irritat¬ 
ed by the long continued presence of the body, the force with 
which they contract is exceedingly great. 
Hence tKe difficulty of dislodging any foreign substance ; and 
the impropriety of using undue force in driving it downward; 
