The protruding tongue itself may ulcerate, possibly bleed,
and there is constant dribbling of saliva. The disease is
probably due to congenital defect aggravated by frequent attacks
of glossitis, and the treatment consists in the removal of the
protruding portions by the knife, ligation, the cautery, or
ecraseur.
Living Fish in the Pharynx.--Probably the most interesting cases
of foreign bodies are those in which living fish enter the
pharynx and esophagus. Chevers has collected five cases in which
death was caused by living fish entering the mouth and occluding
the air-passages. He has mentioned a case in which a large
catfish jumped into the mouth of a Madras bheestie. An operation
on the esophagus was immediately commenced, but abandoned, and an
attempt made to push the fish down with a probang, which was, in
a measure, successful. However, the patient gave a convulsive
struggle, and, to all appearances, died. The trachea was
immediately opened, and respiration was restored. During the
course of the night the man vomited up pieces of fish bone
softened by decomposition. In 1863 White mentions that the
foregoing accident is not uncommon among the natives of India,
who are in the habit of swimming with their mouths open in tanks
abounding with fish.
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