REMOVING PLASTER BANDAGES. 189 



Gutta-percha dressings are less frequently emplo\ed in veterinary 

 surgery on account of their cost. The material is in the form of tiat 

 plates, which become plastic on immersion in warm water, and can 

 then be pressed closely in contact with the injured part, which should 

 first be well oiled. The soft mass adapts itself with the greatest 

 facility to all prominences and depressions, and rapidly becomes hard 

 under a stream of cold water. The advantages of gutta-percha are its 

 slight elasticity, the ease with which it can be kept clean, its 

 impermeabilit}' to fluids, and the facility with which it can be removed. 

 Moreover, the same material ma}- be used repeatedly, so that its first 

 cost is really the chief objection. For small animals like dogs it is 

 particularly useful, and in fracture of the lower jaw in larger animals it 

 renders excellent service, a kind of hollow splint being formed, in 

 which the jaw is embedded. 



Poroplastic felt consists of felt impregnated with a resinous 

 solution. It is made in sheets of varying size and thickness up to 

 three feet square and | inch in thickness. By immersion in boiling 

 water or exposure to dry heat it becomes quite plastic, and may 

 readily be moulded to the shape of the injured part. It becomes firm 

 on cooling, but a " setting " process continues for some time after- 

 wards, so that its greatest strength is not attained for six or eight 

 hours. Its porous character readily permits of transpiration, and the 

 skin is therefore much less apt to become macerated by retained 

 perspiration, as occasionally happens when gutta-percha splints are 

 used. The writer has seen very excellent results from the use of this 

 material in the setting of fractured limbs in racehorses. 



