688 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
purpose each is intended to serve. Part IV is an entirely new 
department, full of useful information, much of which is con¬ 
tained under the heading of “ Poisons and their Treatment.” 
Valuable tables are also here to be found, and altogether the 
Manual for 1901 is a much improved and very useful edition. 
While intended particularly tor practitioners of human medi¬ 
cine, it is a useful guide to the canine prescriber, and will sug¬ 
gest many new combinations for the equine patient. R. R. B. 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
m’kielip’s operation eor tracheotomy. 
New York City, Oct. 8, 1901. 
Editors American Veterinary Review : 
Dear Sirs :—In your complete and also interesting issue 
of September there appears in the “ Original Articles ” from 
the pen of Secretary John J. Millar, V. S., a few lines headed: 
“Tracheotomy—McKillip’s New Method,” where it is stated 
that we (the authors) have been frequently requested to give 
our methods adopted in the operation of tracheotomy; and, 
further on, “ that it has in view the overcoming of the many ? 
(interrogation is mine) complications and unsatisfactory !! (ex¬ 
clamations also mine) results which accompany or follow the 
operation, that a new method seemed inevitable.” 
For the benefit of your readers, and to put everything in its 
proper place, by giving to Caesar what belongs to him, I beg to 
refer parties interested to the fact that the new mode of oper¬ 
ation is described in Peuch and Toussaint (2d edition), published 
in 188 7 / that Zundel, in the 3d volume of his dictionary, de¬ 
scribes it in 7^77, ten years before ; that an English veterinarian, 
Gowing, in 1849 or 1850, invented a special tube for same opera¬ 
tion ; that Bouley described it fifty years ago, in 1851 ; that in 
the 3d vol. of “ Operative Surgery,” of Brogneir, published in 
Belgium in 1845, tracheotomy by section of the ligament be¬ 
tween the cartilaginous rings, is mentioned ; and, finally, that in 
7775, Rafosse described the whole process as his invention, a fact 
which has been acknowledged by all those who have written on 
the subject since. 
Is it now a question of priority between Rafosse and McKil- 
lip, or is it that the new method of McKillip is already 126 
years old ? Yours truly, W. J. COATES. 
