332 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
dermically a saturated solution of chloride of sodium, and re¬ 
marking at the same time that if any of us had occasion to em¬ 
ploy the remedy you would be pleased to hear the result. 
On May 28th Mr. L. Stephens, a neighbor, came to my farm 
for the pnrpose of breeding some mares, and in the course of his 
conversation mentioned that he had two shoats that were badly 
bursted on the belly, and wanted to know if I could help them- 
any. He brought them over the same day. The pigs were 
about two months old, and weighed about sixty pounds apiece. 
The first one operated upon, (the sow), presented a tumor at the 
umbilicus shaped like an inverted corn ; its antero-posterior diam¬ 
eter at base was, as near as I could calculate with the eye, from 
five to five and one-half inches long, while the lateral diameter 
was something like four inches ; the apex dragged on the ground 
and had worn a hole very nearly through the skin. This 
abraded surface was about the size of a silver quarter dollar. 
The other, a barrow, (which had been castrated a few days be¬ 
fore) presented the same appearance, only the tumor was a little 
larger in all its dimensions, and the point was worn to the size of 
a half dollar, and on pressure it was felt to be no thicker than 
tissue paper. In manipulating these tumors it was found impos¬ 
sible to return them to the abdominal cavity, but they were soft, 
very elastic and fluctuating on pressure. I proceeded to operate 
b}' ins'erting a hypodermic needle full length just under the skin 
from the base, obliquely and downwardly, into the (imaginary), 
four corners of the tumors, and injected into each of them two 
syringes full of the chloride of sodium solution. But three cor¬ 
ners of the tumor of the barrow were injected, the fourth corner 
being occupied by the sheath and penis. It was thought an in¬ 
jection at this point might interfere with the animal’s urinating. 
Eighteen days afterwards Mr. S. was at my barn again, and in¬ 
formed me that the tumors on both pigs were enormously swollen, 
and he believed that they would both die. Te my question as to 
whether they ate and drank any, he replied that he could see no 
difference, but that he had not taken particular notice, for they 
were running with quite a number of other pigs about the same 
size. 
