THE IMPROVED ART OF FARRIERY. 69 



joints, and in passing through them, fractured the end 

 ol the bones, it will then be found for the most part 

 impossible to effect a cure, or even to save the Hfe 

 of the patient, and therefore it is the best and most 

 humane course to destroy the animal to save him from 

 pain and misery. 



Horses are much easier cured of gun-shot wounds 

 than the human species : this arises from the lattei' 

 being impressed generally with anxiety, from which 

 the animal is free ; hence the irritability is much less 

 in the one than the other, and the horse displays no 

 symptoms of uneasiness till the constitution is af- 

 fected. 



Treatment. — Should any substances of a hurtful and 

 irritable nature have been carried with the ball into 

 the wound, it would be best to try and extract them, 

 otherwise probing the wound unnecessarily only gives 

 pain and does not advance the cure. If the wound 

 becomes ulcerated, treat it as under article JJicers. Fe- 

 ver often accompanies gun-shot wounds, when it were 

 good to give laxative and cooling medicines. 



In treating these cases, Gibson says — 



" Where a ball has penetrated quite through any 

 part, both orifices m.ust be kept open till the wound 

 is filled up with new flesh, and no bad symptoms re- 

 main, as pain, swelling, or inflammation, which in those 

 gun-shot wounds that enter the bones as well as the 

 flesh, would denote the existence either of extraneous 

 matter, or of splinters, which must be removed by gra- 

 dually enlarging the most convenient orifice. But in 

 most internal this is unnecessary, because the bullet 

 can seldom be brought out the same way by which it 

 entered. I have known leaden bullets lie many years 

 in men, especially in the abdomen, without any great 



