EXCISION OF THE RIBS. 597 
of a violent contusion ; a portion of the third rib was removed, 
and the patient cured after two months.” 
It appears from these cases, that the partial excision of the ribs 
is not so dangerous an operation as is generally believed, and the 
hemorrhage from the intercostal arteries is easily stopped by com¬ 
pression or ligature. 
The introduction of air into the lungs is the circumstance most 
to be dreaded : in the cases in question, however, it caused only 
a transitory danger. The fatal consequences of caries and sup¬ 
puration of the ribs and their cartilages are but too well known : 
in many instances they might, by a surgical operation, be avoided. 
The patient of MM. Dupuy and Prince was an old cow 
that was devoted to certain experimental operations. Injections 
of vinegar were twice thrown into the left cavity of the chest. 
Eight days after the second injection, four inches and a half of 
the eighth rib on the same side were ren.oved. A great quan¬ 
tity of colourless serous fluid escaped from the wound, which was 
large enough to admit of the introduction of the hand, and by 
means of which the costal pleura might be easily felt, covered with 
false membranes, flocculent, soft, and thickened to the extent 
of two inches. Scarcely had this fluid escaped, when the cow, 
whose breathing had been rendered very laborious by these in¬ 
jections, appeared very materially relieved. Being liberated, she 
began immediately to eat; she ruminated, and the movements of 
her flanks, and the pulse, returned to their natural state. It was 
curious to see her so much at ease when she had a window in her 
chest five inches long, through which the students could easily 
see the movements of the lung’s. 
“ On the second day there was a convulsive motion of the flank, 
very much resembling that which accompanies and characterizes 
broken-wind ; but, with this exception, very little appeared to be 
the matter with the beast, who lived twenty days in this state, 
eating and ruminating well, and having her muzzle as moist as 
another cow in perfect health. 
“ The only accident that occurred during this period was the 
development of the larvae of the house-fly, even within the chest. 
On the fourth day they were perceived on the borders of the 
wound, and almost on the lung. Injections of warm water were 
thrown into the pleura in order to remove them ; and, better 
to facilitate the escape of this fluid, a counter-opening was made 
between the cartilages of the seventh and eighth ribs. Some 
empyreumatic vegetable oil was smeared over the edges of the 
wound, but, in spite of these precautions, the larvae appeared in 
almost countless numbers. 
4 K 
VOl.. XI. 
