THE HOSPITAL BULLETIN Published Monthly in the Interest of the Medical Department of the University of Maryland PRICE $1.00 PER YEAR Contributions invited from the Alumni of the University. Business Address, Baltimore, Md. Entered at the Baltimore Post office as Second Class Matter. VOL. V BALTIMORE, MD., MAY 15, 1909 NO. 3 THREE ESOPHAGEAL CASES. BY RICHARD H. JOHNSTON. M. D., _Lecturer on Laryngology in the University of Maryland, Surgeon to the Presbyterian Hospital, Baltimore._ The esophagoscope has passed the experimental stage in the diagnosis and treatment of esophageal lesions. Its usefulness has been demonstrated so often that it would seem superfluous to dilate upon its value. Its use, however, is not as general as it should be. There are still those who consider esophagoscopy unnecessary or impracticable. At the Presbyterian Hospital we have had numerous instances of its practicability, and with us it has become the routine practice to examine all patients complaining of obscure esophageal symptoms. Dr. Chevalier Jackson records the case of a patient whose only symptom was a lump on swallowing. She appeared to be a neurasthenic, and his advice to have the esophagus examined was ignored by the family physician. Two months later, with the patient etherized for a radical antrum operation, he passed the esophagoscope and found a malignant growth.