Journal of Agriculture. [8 April, 1908. 



to use the knife again to trim the wound and remove any hard cal- 

 loused flesh that remains, or any proud flesh that may have formed. 

 After operation no stitches are necessary — the wO'Und should be allowed to 

 heal slowly from the bottom. To operate successfully it is necessary to 

 have the horse properly secured, and, if it is not desired to throw him, 

 a good plan is to hitch him, head and tail, to a post and rail fence— the 

 head to one post and the tail to the netxt. This is one of the operations, 

 however, in which chloroforming is of great advantage. 



The use of vitrol, bluestone, or other caustics in the treatment of 

 fistulous withers either before or after operating is to be strongly con- 

 demned. Under the circumstances of the existence of a fistula they are 

 powerless for good and very powerful for evil, their only action being to 

 increase the swelling and inflammation. The object of all treatment 

 should be to get rid of the imprisoned matter and of the calloused swelling 

 to which it has given rise, and, as pointed out above, all applications or 

 injections or treatment of any kind will be abortive except the knife has 

 been previously freely used. 



Poll Evil. 



The " poll ' ' is the common name given to the region at the upper end 

 of the neck on top, and immediately behind the bony ridge between the 

 ears known as the crest of the occiput. Poll evil is the term used to 

 describe an injury sustained in this region. It may at first be a mere 

 bruise, but the formation of one or more abscesses quickly follows and, 

 on their bursting, a fistula or fistulae of a very intractable character result. 



The condition is, fortunately, not a very common one in Australia, 

 the infrequency being most likely due to the absence of the low roofs, 

 cross-beams and doorways which are a common feature of the older Eng- 

 lish stables and which are held accountable for many cases of poll evil 

 there. 



Treatment is often very unsatisfactory. Free u.se of the knife as 

 advised for fistula in the region of the withers iis not permissible here 

 because of the contiguity of such structures as the spinal cord and im- 

 portant nerve tnunks and blood vessels. The abscesses should be lanced 

 and syringed out with antiseptics, depending openings being made at the 

 lowest part containing pus so as to allow of free di-scharge. Setons 

 may be inserted to keep such openings from healing too rapidly so that 

 discharges may not be again imprisoned. 



Shoulder Tun^or, 



The so-called shoulder tumors which are of such common occurrence in 

 draught horses are really not tumors, but inflammatory enlargements of 

 slow growth. They often contain in the centre a small quantity of im- 

 prisoned pus and so partake of the nature of an abscess ; but it is very 

 rarely, and then onlv after a long time — two or three years — that they 

 ever burst. Thev are usually situated just above the point of the shoulder 

 and the particular tissue invoihed in the fibrous growth is the levator 

 humeri muscle. 



The almost sole cause is a collar pinch or bruise of the muscle sustained 

 during sudden or jerky pulling when drawing heavy loads over uneven 

 ground. Although the tenderness from such a pinch passes away quickly 

 there remains deep-seated in the muscle a slight inflammatory swelling 

 caused by the exudation of lymiph. This exudate becomes organised (that 

 is, transformed into living tissue by the formation of blood vessels in it) 

 into fibrous tissue. This hard fibrous growth of tissue continues under the 



