594 
EXCISION OF THE RIBS. 
purposely or accidentally, by being rolled up in the substance, 
forced, some a quarter, some half, and some entirely through it. 
Such is the preparation which has misled some thousands: a 
second edition of my Essay’’ may ere long appear, wdien the 
affair will have a more lengthened exposure. 
The critics alluded to make me to say, that these larvae feed 
on the ' vegetable contents of the horse’s stomachthis shews 
they know nothing of the matter, for I have expressly stated 
that they feed on chyle, which chyle is often tinged of a green 
colour, from its impurity;—and pray what is the fluid to which 
they allude—but chyle ? 
** The opinion that bots are not salutiferous, is worth nothing 
at all, without some proofs to support it. I have given many in 
support of a contrary opinion.” 
EXCISION OF THE RIBS. 
[In the portion of the proceedings of the Veterinary Medical 
Association which w’as contained in our last number, Mr. 
Ferguson’s interesting case of the excision of parts of two 
of the ribs of the horse appeared. He says that Baron Ri- 
cherand had the honour of introducing this operation into the 
practice of human surgery. Mr. Ferguson is mistaken here; 
it had been repeatedly performed, four or five years before, by 
Signor L. Cittadini, of Bologna. In addition to this, Baron 
Richerand’s operation was an unfortunate one: Cittadini’s 
w'ere completely successful. It is but an act of justice to the 
Italian professor to place on record, among our archives, an 
account of these first operations on the biped. Richerand 
failed in his first experiment in France; but it has gradually 
become a recognized operation among the French surgeons. 
It has been attempted on our side of the channel. Dr. Arnott 
has been pre-eminently successful. The American surgeons 
have likewise been bold and successful. Accounts are given 
of their proceedings in the Lancet for 1827-8, vol ii, page 484, 
and 1837-8, ii, p. 606. A more recent case occurs in the 
Lancet of July 28, 1838. Among veterinary surgeons it was 
attempted in France by MM. Dupuy and Prince on a cow, 
and by M. Ollivier on a mule. After those of Cittadini, we 
will relate the experiments of these French professors. Mr. 
Ferguson is the first Englishman who has placed on record a 
case of operation of this kind on the quadruped, and we are not 
