any of the natural substance of
the gland is cut into, or if the incision is made beyond the projecting
portion of the tonsil, there is grave danger of serious hemorrhage.
After excision a mixture of water and vinegar should be kept in the
mouth for some time. This should be administered cold in order to
prevent the flow of blood. After this very cold water should be taken.

In this same book, Chapter L, he treats of foreign bodies in the
respiratory and upper digestive tracts. If there is anything in the
larynx or the bronchial tubes the attempt must be made to secure its
ejection by the production of coughing or sneezing. If the foreign body
can be seen it should be grasped with a pincers and removed. If it is in
the esophagus, Aetius suggests that the patient should be made to
swallow a sponge dipped in grease, or a piece of fat meat, to either of
which a string has been attached, in order that the foreign body may be
caught and drawn out. If it seems preferable to carry the body on into
the stomach, the swallowing of large mouthfuls of fresh bread or other
such material is recommended.

With regard to goitre, Aetius has some interesting details. He says
that "all tumors occurring in the throat region are called bronchoceles,
for every tumor among the ancients was called a cele, and, though the
name is common to them, they differ very much from one another." Some of
them are fatty, some of them are pultaceous, some of them are cancerous,
and some of them he calls honey tumors, because of a honey-like humor
they contain. "Sometimes they are due to a local dilatation of the blood
vessels, and this is most frequently connected with parturition,
apparently being due to the drawing of the breath being prevented or
repressed during the most violent pains of the patient. Such local
dilatation at this point of the veins is incurable, but there are also
hard tumors like scirrhus and malignant tumors, and those of great size.
With the exception of these last, _all the tumors of this region are
easily cured_, yielding either to surgery or to remedies. Surgery must
be adapted to the special tumor, whether it be honey-like or fatty, or
pultaceous." The prognosis of goitrous tumors is much better than might
be expected, but evidently Aetius saw a number of the functional
disturbances and enlargements of the thyroid gland, which are so
variable in character as apparently to be quite amenable to treatment.

Aetius' treatment of th