WHEN we regard the horse in the various and manifold capacities in which he in our own country is made to serve by his lord and master, man-as a racer, a hunter, a hackney, a carriage-horse, a plough-horse, a mill-horse, a bat-horse-and come to consider the numerous trials and constraints he is made, in these several situations, to undergo, and to add to them the too frequent abuses by which they are severally accompanied, we need not express surprise should we find that he is often the subject of what we comprehend, in surgical language, under the general term, "injury." Independently of the risks and chances to which, even under the most careful guidance, he is exposed in some of these undertakings, he becomes more and more the creature of accident, from being constantly placed in the hands of those who are reckless even of their own, much more of his life; or else of such as are altogether unskilled in his subjugation and management.

KINDS.-Injuries are said to be of three kinds or descrip

tions:-Mechanical, chemical, and mixed. MECHANICAL INJURIES comprehend wounds of all kinds, contusions, abrasions, &c.; also fractures and dislocations. CHEMICAL INJURIES comprise the effects of heat-scalds and burns; also the effects of various acrid and caustic substances, such as the concentrated acids, the caustic alkalies, lunar caustic, corrosive sublimate, arsenic, &c. MIXED INJURIES include such as are occasioned by the bites or stings of venomous animals, mad dogs, insects, &c. as well as such as are conveyed through the medium of inoculation.

WOUNDS.

A wound may be defined to be, a recent breach or division of any of the soft parts of the body, occasioned on a sudden by some external cause or other.

THE KIND and extent of the wound will depend on the nature and intensity of the cause: its degree of danger will likewise depend on the cause, though more on the nature and extent of the parts divided. Wounds are said to be in kind either incised, contused, lacerated, punctured, gun-shot, or poisoned.

AN INCISED WOUND or cut of any description, is one of a kind at once the most simple and favourable that can be presented to us; and, in general, the sharper the instrument that is the occasion of it, the more disposed are the parts to unite afterwards: on which account, in the performance of surgical operations of any kind, we always use the sharpest knives, making our incisions clean, and as direct as is practicable. An incised wound is not only attended in the first instance with less danger, but in the end will heal faster than any other description of wound. It is not the kind of wound, however, with which we commonly meet in veterinary practice; though in large towns, cases of the sort do every now and then occur. I will relate one: it will probably convey more practical information than general description*.

* A horse, the property of the Hon.

in turning the corner of a street in Town, came suddenly into collision with the wheel of a carriage, and the

THE PERUSAL OF THIS CASE furnishes us with a prospect of what we are to expect in the generality of such occurrences;

consequence was an extensive incised wound of great depth, diagonally across the fleshy part of the inside of the thigh. Blood trickled freely from the wound, but not in such quantity as to excite any apprehensions on the score of hemorrhage. The animal was led into a yard hard by, and immediately cast, and the wound cleansed, for the purpose of examination, with sponge and warm water. Though the wound was deep, the principal bloodvessels had escaped injury; therefore nothing remained, after having carefully sponged out the clotted blood, but to bring the divided sides of the skin together by suture; after which the horse was led into a box, but kept tied up (lest by moving about he should disturb the wound, or get his mouth to it and gnaw the stitches), and was fed on bran-mashes alone for the remainder of that day, in order to be ready to take a strong dose of physic on the next morning, fasting. The same morning, on visiting him, I examined his pulse, and mouth, and skin, and flanks, to see if there was any fever or symptoms of irritation about him: finding, however, that there were none, and that his appetite was good, I conceived it unnecessary to bleed him, but simply ordered that he should have green meat in lieu of hay, and be kept quite quiet. In the course of the day afterwards, the physic began to operate, and continued operating all the following day. Finding, on the fourth day, that the wound was growing tumid and exceedingly tender to the touch, and that some acrid serous fluid was escaping, I hailed this as the time for the removal of the sutures; which I effected very well as he stood (with the aid of a twitch), by dividing the stitches first with a pair of scissars, and afterwards drawing them out, one by one, with my forceps. No sooner were the lips of the wound liberated, than they receded from each other, and to a great distance, though not, perhaps, to the same extent that they would have done, had sutures not been employed: so that by their use, even here, probably something had been gained. A deep chasm was now exposed to view, whose interior exhibited a livid, sloughy aspect, and was moist with acrid serous discharge. I ordered a digestive dressing*; and, at the same time, directed that the animal be let loose in the box, with the reserve that he wore a cradle, to prevent him from licking or biting the wound. The next day there was an appearance of purulent matter around the borders: I renewed the digestive, to produce the same from the depths and recesses of the cavity. Soon afterwards, this point was gained; and then followed the springing up of granulations. I now changed my dressing for spirituous tinctures: employing one day Friars' balsam; another, tincture of

Turpentine dressings-either the spirits of turpentine or turpentine ointment, are the commonly used digestives. For my own part, I find nothing more effective in producing good laudable pus than the farriers' black oil, for which the recipe will be found at page 176.

at the same time that it teaches us what steps we have commonly to pursue by way of treatment. In all wounds there are three circumstances requiring our immediate attention and consideration: the first is the

HEMORRHAGE or Bleeding.-In general, incised wounds bleed more freely than contused or lacerated ones; and the sharper the instrument, the cleaner the cut, the more the bleeding the reason for which is, that wounds of the latter description are more favourable for the stagnation and clotting of the blood, as well as for the retraction of the divided arteries (from which the bleeding is mostly derived), than sharp or simple incisions are. The rapidity of the stream, and the colour or character of the blood, will at once inform us whether any vessels of size or importance are wounded. Should it come from arteries, its colour will be a bright scarlet; and its rapidity and copiousness of stream, which will exhibit a sort of jet or spout as it issues from the wound, will be in ratio with the size of the injured vessel or vessels: on the other hand, should veins furnish most of the blood that comes away, it will be of a dark purplish red colour, and flow in a continued or uninterrupted and comparatively tardy stream. When the current is evidently arterial, and of a rapidity or fulness to excite apprehensions, should we not be able to apply a compress and roller in a manner effectual for its suppression, we must lose no time either in searing (and so closing) the mouth of the bleeding vessel with the actual cautery, or else in seizing it with a pair of forceps and securing it by ligature. In the selection of these means, much must be left to the discriminative judgment of the practitioner: unless I were myrrh and aloes; making use at the same time of powdered bark by way of an astringent and absorbent, to repress and soak up the discharges, which were now become profuse in the extreme. Every time, before dressing the wound, I had it (as well as the limb) made thoroughly clean by fomentation. The animal had but little fever during the time -none that required any thing farther than occasional laxatives, and a continuance in cooling diet; and in two months his wound was healed; and become covered over again by a contraction of the skin from each side, so that nothing ultimately remained to be seen but a cicatrix or scar, consisting simply in a long puckered mark or seam across the hair.

REMOVAL OF MATTERS-CLOSING THE WOUND. 173

writing on some one particular case, it would be impossible for me to give any other than general rules of guidance. The limbs, commonly, admit of compress and roller; though the thigh and hock, and shoulder and knee, are awkward parts (from their form and the motion they possess) to bandage with much effect. In all cases the heated budding-iron presents itself as a ready and facile remedy for the bleeding; and (when the skin is not concerned) not so very painful a one as people might imagine. Though in most cases, when I could promptly get at the bleeding vessel, I would prefer the ligature, cutting but one end off, and leaving the other hanging out of the wound between the

sutures.

Budding Iron.

The hemorrhage being suppressed, or else not thought of consequence enough to require checking, the next thing to be

done is to

REMOVE ALL EXTRANEOUS MATTERS; such as dirt or grit of any kind, bits of stick, glass, &c. &c.; also the clots of blood in the wound. This is to be done with a soft sponge, some warm water, and a light hand. It is a necessary step towards union by the first intention: at least it is one by which we remove all causes of irritation, and therefore of suppuration; among which (as was shewn before) stagnant blood is now very properly regarded.

THE CLOSURE OF THE WOUND is the third thing required. The surgeon approximates the lips of a wound, and confines them in apposition by the aids of plaster and roller, and position and quietude the veterinary surgeon will find that plaster will not stick upon the hairy skin of his patient; that rollers or bandages are not always applicable; and that position and quietude are too often rather "honoured in the breach than in the observance." Though we cannot command the observance, however, it is our duty to avail ourselves both of position and