[Illustration: FIG. 1.--FEEDING A PATIENT THROUGH A STOMACHAL TUBE.]

[Illustration: FIG. 2.--DETAILS OF THE TUBE. C, rubber tube for
leading food to the stomach, E; B B', rubber balls, which, inflated
with air by means of the tube, T, and rubber ball, P, effect a
hermetic closing; A, stopper for the tube, C; R, cock of the air
tube.]

Mr. X., fifty-three years of age, is a strong man of arthritic
temperament. He has suffered for several years with violent gastralgia
and obstinate dyspepsia, for which he has long used morphine. The
oesophagal symptoms appear to date back to the month of September,
1887, when he had a painful regurgitation of a certain quantity of
meat that he had swallowed somewhat rapidly.

Since that epoch, the passage of solid food has been either painful or
difficult, and often followed by regurgitation. The food seemed to
stop at the level of the pit of the stomach. So he gave up solid food,
and confined himself to liquids or semi-liquids, which readily passed
up to December 20, 1887. At this epoch, he remarked that liquids were
swallowed with difficulty, especially at certain moments, they
remaining behind the sternum and afterward slowly descending or being
regurgitated. This state of things was more marked especially in the
first part of January. He was successfully sounded several times, but
soon the sound was not able to pass. Doctors Affre and Bazenet got him
to come to Paris, where he arrived February 5, 1888.

For ten days, the patient had not been able to swallow anything but
about a quart of milk or bouillon in small doses. As soon as he had