EXTIRPATION OF THE PAROTID GLAND. 
399 
took this operation without having at all prepared himself by pre¬ 
vious dissection; and to add (as a proof of it), that he follows this 
up by the detail of another case, in which he appears to have ope¬ 
rated with great skill and dexterity. He had to tie and divide 
several veins and some small arteries, but he wounded neither 
vessel nor nerve on this occasion; which was purely a case of ex¬ 
periment for the operation alone: in fact, the same as was my own 
case, with the account of which I shall end my paper. 
The subject of my experiment was a horse, twenty-seven years 
of age, doomed by his master to be shot, having become almost 
useless; still he enjoyed perfect health. % 
Sept. 26th, 1826. Having cast the old horse, and bolstered 
up his head with half a truss of straw, after the manner recom¬ 
mended by Leblanc, in order to give prominency to the parotid 
gland to be excised, I extended an incision from the root of the 
ear to the lower border of the gland. I then slid a probe under 
the muscular layer beneath the skin, and carefully divided that, 
thereby laying bare the glandular substance, which I exposed, 
both anteriorly and posteriorly, to the full extent the incision 
through the skin would permit me. This done, the excision of 
the gland was commenced. During the operation, I found my¬ 
self much embarrassed by haemorrhage from veins; two, in par¬ 
ticular, which it became necessaiy to cut through : in all, however, 
I tied only three veins and one small (glandular) artery. The 
trunk of the jugular bounded my dissection in front, forming a 
line of demarcation for my knife; in fact, it was necessary to dis¬ 
sect all round this vessel, to get at portions of the gland, which re¬ 
quired great steadiness and precision in the use of the knife. 
About a pint of blood was lost in the opemtion. The integuments 
were brought together by suture; and the chasm speedily became 
'filled with blood, which collected and coagulated in it. 
2d Day ,—Some tumefaction, but much less than I expected 
to see. Frothy serous fluid mixed with blood running out of the 
wound. The swollen parts have a puffy feel, and crepitus is pre¬ 
sent, in consequence of air getting admission and mingling with 
the blood in the wound. 
Qth Day ,—I did not see the case again until this day, in conse¬ 
quence of absence. The stitches had given way, exposing an open 
wound, from which runs a copious issue of sero-purulent matter, 
along with which can be detected some saliva. Animal’s health 
unimpaired. Wound dressed with spirits of terebinth. 
^th Day ,—The parts show a disposition to granulate, but it conti¬ 
nues to pour forth much purulent matter, without any commixture, 
however, of salivary fluid. An astringent dressing. 
\2th Day ,—Wound gradually filling up. 
