INTRODUCTION 



2. What May be Healed ArtificiaUy?— The problem of artificial 

 assistance consists above all in supporting, promoting, and acceler- 

 ating the natural healing processes. Natura sanat medicus curat. 

 Disinfected, ligatured, and bandaged wounds, reduced bone frac- 

 tures, and incised abscesses heal better and more rapidly than when 

 left entirely to nature's efforts. This is also true of the artificial 

 removal of fluid exudates (hydrothorax, ascites, acute hydro- 

 cephalus, laminitis), and of the medicinal treatment of heart weak- 

 ness and dangerously high fever, pulmonary congestion, cerebral 

 hypersemia (phlebotomy), and numerous other diseases. 



In many cases natural healing entirely fails to remove the dis- 

 ease. Then it is only curable through artificial methods. Sur- 

 gery and obstetrics are especially rich in examples of this kind. 

 To this class of cases belong most of the neoplasms and parasitic 

 diseases, especially mange, deviations in the position of the foetus 

 and of the gravid uterus, invaginations and incarcerations of the 

 intestines, herniae and prolapses, ulcers and fistula?, urinary calculi, 

 foreign bodies in the stomach and intestines, tympanites of the 

 rumen and intestines, wounds of the carotid artery, etc. 



3. What is Incurable?— The answer to this question will depend 

 upon the present extent of medical knowledge. There is a large 

 number of diseased conditions which are incurable in spite of all 

 discoveries and therapeutic progress, and which will probably 

 remain so in the future. A dead tissue or organ cannot be replaced 

 in its original form. Incurable also are atrophic conditions, 

 chronic hydrocephalus, chronic interstitial nephritis and hepatitis, 

 ankyloses, many neoplasms in internal organs, fractures of the cer- 

 vical, dorsal, and lumbar vertebras, atrophy of the optic nerve, 

 detachment of the retina, emphysema of the lungs, progressive 

 atrophy of the posterior crico-arytenoid muscle (roaring), general- 

 ized carcinomatosis, sarcomatosis, tuberculosis, and actinomycosis, 

 echinococcus disease, glanders, and rabies. In the large domestic 

 animals (horses, cattle) fractures of the upper bones of the extrem- 

 ities, severe pelvic fractures, purulent inflammation of the large 

 joints, and perforating wounds of the intestines are, as a rule, 

 incurable. Many diseased conditions are curable in man that are 



