It is a disputed point how these growths are occasioned. However, no compliment is paid to the veterinary science, when it is asserted that, even to this day, no recognized plan of treatment for polypus has been laid down. Such tumors are allowed to be removed with the knife, by ligature, by traction, and by tortion; in short, as you please. The first has generally been employed after a most butcherly fashion, slicing a piece off one day, and taking a morsel the next, till by slow degrees the whole was extirpated. So barbarous an operation is only worthy of ancient farriery; the blood lost must be enormous, and the subsequent weakness of the animal must more than counterbalance any benefit which the operation could have promised. Mr. Varnell, assistant professor at the Royal Veterinary College, lately removed a growth of this kind in a much more surgical fashion. That gentleman had a knife made with an angular blade; by employing this instrument, he was enabled to excise the tumor with a single cut, inflicting little pain, but affording immediate and lasting benefit to the creature. Where it can be employed, Mr. Varnell's angular knife is to be recommended, as the quickest and most efficient means of eradication which the public possess.
POLYPUS FORCEPS OR SCISSORS.
Tortion is more repulsive in appearance than in reality. A pair of scissors having sharp curved claws, at the expanded ends of blunt blades, are employed. The tumor is seized by the claws, a little pressure is made, and, at the same time, the scissors are drawn slightly forward. By that means the points are driven into the substance, and a firm hold is obtained. The handles of the scissors are next fastened together with wire, or not, at the pleasure of the operator. The scissors are afterward made to revolve several times, and with each revolution they oblige the polypus to turn upon its pedicle, which motion first twists and ultimately ruptures it. The growth is thus removed; as the polypus is not very sensitive, and the operation should be soon over, small suffering is inflicted, when compared with the permanent ease which the proceeding insures.
Of the operation by traction or dragging away, no notice will be taken; it is a vulgar and a cruel affair. Ligature, however, where it can be used, is generally preferred; because the employment of it is not so sudden, and, consequently, not apparently so violent; because no blood generally follows the removal, and therefore there is no visible evidence of pain. The writer is not certain it is the least painful of the methods proposed; the relief is delayed, although the appearance and the appetite of the animal are assurances that nothing approaching to agony is inflicted.
DIAGRAM OF A TUBE FOR THE REMOVAL OF NASAL POLYPUS.
For ligature procure a fine, hollow tube, having at one end a cover made to screw on and off; the opposite extremity must be open, and should have a cross bar attached externally, one inch from the termination. Upon the cover two holes must be bored, each large enough to admit a fine wire; to arm this instrument, which should be about eighteen inches long, procure a piece of zinc wire one yard and a half long; push this through one of the holes on the unscrewed cover and down the tube; screw on the cover; fasten the projecting end of the wire to the cross bar; return the wire through the other hole, and, passing it down the tube, leave it hanging free. Form of the wire a loop, large enough to surround the polypus; pass it gently over the head of the growth; by means of the tube, work the loop upward, tightening the wire as the size of the polypus diminishes. When the wire is round the pedicle, fix it by winding it also over the cross bar; then slowly make turns with the tube, observing the growth while so doing. When the tumor changes color or the animal exhibits pain, discontinue all further movements; release the wires from the cross bar and withdraw the tube, leaving the ends of the ligature protruding from the nostril and turned up on one side of the face.
Order the horse to be fastened to the pillar-reins that night, and to be watched while feeding. The next day, if the tumor do not feel sensibly cold and has not evidently lost the living hue, reinsert the wires into the tube, fix them again on the cross bar, and give another turn or two. If small alteration be subsequently observed, the same evening the proceeding may be repeated; but, when death appears confirmed in the tumor, twist the tube till the pedicle gives way.
The advantages possessed by this invention is, firstly, the ability of twisting a ligature tight when the growth is partly removed from view. Also, in the adoption of wire which will retain the form it is placed in, and remain unaffected by the moisture natural to the nostrils. Moreover, the tube can be made without the screwing head-piece, and answers quite as well, or even better, when solid. If made without the screwing head-piece, it can assume a flattened form, and it is somewhat easier to introduce; but the wire, in that case, must have both ends pushed through the holes down the tube.