572 
OPERATING BED FOR HORSES. 
come under his notice. A man had had tracheotomy per¬ 
formed several years ago, by Mr. Edwards, and had since 
worn a double tube. Yesterday, while riding on horseback, 
the rim of the tube, which had been gradually wearing, 
gave way, and it fell, as the man expressed it, f into his 
chest.’ The man went at once to Mr. Edwards’ house, but 
as that gentleman was from home, his assistant put in another 
tube, and sent him to the hospital, where he came under Mr. 
Spence’s care. When Mr. Spence saw the patient, he was 
breathing quite freely, and the sounds on auscultation were 
very much the same on the two sides of the chest. A probe 
was in the first instance passed down into the right bronchus 
(into which it was generally said that foreign bodies fall.) but 
nothing was felt; it was then passed into the left bronchus, 
and the tube was at once felt. An attempt was then made to 
extract the tube without enlarging the wound, but was un¬ 
successful. Chloroform was then administered, the opening 
was enlarged by cutting through two or three rings of the 
trachea, a pair of bent forceps was introduced, the tube was 
seized, drawn to the opening, and then extracted. Mr. 
Spence observed, that so far as he knew this was the only case 
of the kind, but it should teach cutlers to make their tubes 
in two lateral halves, and then join them together; for when, 
as at present, the shield was fastened to the tube, the solder¬ 
ing must in the course of time give way.” 
OPERATING BED FOR HORSES. 
By R. II. Dyer, M.R.C.V.S., Waterford. 
There is not, perhaps, a more important thing connected 
with a veterinary establishment than the bed on which we 
operate upon our unfortunate patients. 
The human surgeon has all the necessary appliances at an 
infirmary, by means of which he is enabled to make many 
of the ills that human beings are subject to as pleasant and 
bearable as possible under such trying circumstances. We, 
on the contrary, are not, I fear, sufficiently careful in the use 
of these appliances, and, so long as we provincials can pro¬ 
cure the means of doing that which will enable us to live, 
as a general rule, we seem content therewith. I repeat, the 
most important portion of our establishment is the bed, or 
ground, upon which our patients are found struggling after 
being thrown down and secured for an operation. 
