168 BLEEDING. 



much more safely, from the toe ; not by cutting out, as the fai- 

 rier does, a piece of the sole at the toe of the frog, which some- 

 times causes a wound difficult to heal, and followed by festering, 

 and even by canker ; but cutting down with a fine drawing-knife 

 called a searcher, at the union between the crust and the sole at 

 the very toe until the blood flows, and, if necessary, encouraging 

 its discharge by dipping the foot in warm water. The mesh- 

 work of both arteries and veins will be here divided, and blood 

 is generally obtained in any quantity that may be needed. The 

 bleeding may be stopped with the greatest ease, by placing a bit 

 of tow in the little groove that has been cut, and tacking the shor 

 over it.=^ 



* A great improvement has lately been introduced in the method of ar- 

 resting arterial hemorrhage. The operation is very simple, and, with com- 

 mon care, successful. The instrument is a pair of artery forceps, with rather 

 sharper teeth than the common forceps, and the blades held close by a slide. 

 Tiie vessel is laid bare, detached from the cellular substance around it, and 

 the artery then grasped by the furceps, the instrument deviating a very Ut- 

 ile from the hne of the artery. The vessel is now divided close to the for- 

 ceps, and behind them, and the forceps are twisted four or five times round. 

 The forceps are then loosened, and, generally speaking, not more than a drop 

 or two of blood will have been lost. This method of arresting bleeding has 

 been applied by several scientific and benevolent men with almost con-tant 

 success. It has been readily and effectually practised in docking, and our 

 patients have escaped much torture, and tetanus lost many a victim. The 

 forceps have been introduced, and with much success, in castration, and thus 

 the principal danger of that operation, as well as the most painful part of 

 it, is removed. The colt will be a fair subject for this experiment. On the 

 sheep and the calf it may be readily performed, and the operator will have 

 the pleasing consciousness of rescuing many a poor animal from the iinne- 

 ceBsary infliction of torture. 



