ON THE USE OF THE PROBANG. 
* By J. Tombs, Esq. V.S., Per shore. 
The probang should always be used with extreme caution. I 
have known several instances in which it has been roughly and 
fatally resorted to, and many more in which it has been expertly 
and successfully applied. I will relate a case or two, first, in which 
it has been unsuccessfully employed. 
Nov. 1836.—A cow got a turnip in her throat. Her owner 
introduced the probang several times, but could not force the ob¬ 
structing body down. I was then called in; and on my introducing 
the probang into the oesophagus, I discovered a foreign body in the 
thoracic portion of it. I made several somewhat forcible efforts, 
but could not remove it, and I began to despair; when the owner, 
in a great rage, took hold of the instrument, and forced it down 
the animal’s throat with much violence. I again introduced it, 
to ascertain whether the substance was removed, and I thought 
that I could still find it in the oesophagus ; but the instrument went 
farther. 
The poor beast was in great agony for two or three hours, when 
the left side began to swell. I was then convinced that the owner 
of the cow had done irreparable mischief when he forced the pro¬ 
bang with such unwarrantable violence. The animal was now 
slaughtered. 
On examination after death we found a piece of turnip still in 
the oesophagus. The probang was thrust through the oesophagus, 
and actually went between the shoulder and the thorax, and lace¬ 
rated the muscles as far as the false ribs, which accounted for the 
swelling prior to her being slaughtered. 
The other fatal case was that of a cow belonging to a person of this 
town. In the spring of last year she got a turnip in her throat, 
which was forced into the stomach with a walking-stick. Two 
days afterwards another was arrested in its passage down her 
throat. Her owner borrowed my probang, and a skilful herdsman 
used it; but the cow did not get better. I was sent for, and found 
the patient in very great pain, and her rumen distended with gas. 
I was rather reluctant to use the instrument, thinking the previous 
operators had done serious injury to the msophagus; however, at 
the urgent request of the owner, I very gently passed the probang 
down the cow’s throat, and it apparently went into the rumen with 
the greatest facility. She, however, became rapidly worse—the 
rumen was exceedingly distended with flatus—she looked back at 
her flank, and kickofl at the abdomen with her hind legs, and was 
