74 WOUND TREATMENT 



only a preparatory dieting to avert operative accidents, 

 while the latter are seldom fit for major surgery until 

 the lost vitality has been restored. A physical examina- 

 tion for pulmonary, cardiac, digestive, and locomotory 

 disorders is particularly demanded. Urine analysis, 

 blood counting, and bacteriological tests of discharges 

 and secretions are less called for in animal surgery than 

 in surgery of human beings, and in fact are only sel- 

 dom of sufficient importance to warrant one in resorting 

 to them, but the knowing animal specialist comes to 

 conclusions about the physical condition of his patients 

 by their general appearance and the lives they have 

 previously led. 



The Cost of Better Wound Treatment 



The question of cost always enters into any detailed 

 dissertation on surgical operations. It is usually thought 

 imprudent to add still more to the already high over- 

 head expense of our surgical work. To eliminate the 

 necessity of referring to this feature again, we shall 

 state flatly that the actual value of our surgical opera- 

 tions is not reflected in the prices in vogue to-day. The 

 veterinarian should make them more valuable by doing 

 better work. This is the pure and simple solution of 

 the ridiculously low prices we receive for our surgical 

 services. A scale of prices should be an elastic scale. 

 We must do what the surgeons of human beings do: 

 operate upon the poor for nothing, and claim a reason- 

 able fee where the cost is less an object. In veterinary 

 surgery we should operate upon cheap animals for less 

 than upon those where the salvage is great. Five, ten, 

 fifteen, or twenty dollars may be ill spent for an opera- 

 tion that ends unsuccessfully or in a long convalescence ; 

 while twice these amounts for operations that promptly 



