FISTULOUS PAROTID DUCT. 
390 
i 
hurried the surgeon out of the stable, not so well satisfied with 
himself as our examiners appear to be, for having, unqualified, 
applied his knowledge of surgery in man to practice on the horse. 
There was not the least difficulty in boring a hole through the 
cheek ; but there was considerable difficulty in forming the seton 
therein, and aftemards securing it. 
The mode of proceeding I found the most convenient was this : 
Having made an opening through the cheek, continuous with the 
fistulous one, I passed a piece of rouiid tape through it into the 
mouth, where, by the aid of a balling-iron and a pair of long 
bullet-forceps, I seized hold of the end of it. Now, I found it 
;quite useless to make a seton with knots in the common way, for 
shortly after the knot on the inner side was made and drawn into 
its place, the animal with his grinders bit it off, and thus defeated 
my purpose: the only contrivance, after repeated trials, I found 
effectual, was the attachment of a flat metallic button, without a 
shank, to the inner end of the tape, which being confined close to 
the side of the cheek by a knot on the outside, completely frus¬ 
trated the horse’s efforts to catch it between his teeth. In this 
manner may a seton be easily passed and retained in such a 
situation; but I cannot say that my experience augurs favour¬ 
ably of the experiment. The object in view, as I said before, is 
to establish a fistulous opening internally, and afterw^ards close 
the external one by escharotic dressings, or, if it seem meet, the 
application of the cautery again. 
Should we not by any of these, or other means, succeed in 
closing the fistulous orifice^ and diverting the course of the spittle 
into its proper channels, it becomes a question, what more can be 
done with the intention of remedying so unpleasant a disorder. 
In this stage of our proceeding, it probably strikes some one pre¬ 
sent (if it has not done so before), that it would be an easy matter 
to suppress the issue at once by putting a ligature around the 
parotid duct; an operation that could present no difficulty. Un¬ 
questionably, as far afe regards the operation, our course is clear 
enough ; but, in the event of the parotid duct being obstructed, 
what is to become of the secretion ? Why, I will tell you. It will 
collect and accumulate in the duct until such a degree of disten¬ 
tion takes place that the vessel ruptures, and ruptures at the very 
part around which the ligature is put: at least this was the result 
in a case I shall presently have the pleasure of reading to the 
Society. It appears, however, that this is not the unifomi effect: 
Hurtrel d’Arboval practised the same experiment in a similar case, 
and the effect was considerable inflammation and tumefaction of 
the gland, followed by a large abscess in the very centre of its 
substance, out of the chasm occasioned by the discharge of which 
