80 JIEANS OF EESTKAINT. 



on by a true lesion of the nerves, the brachial, the lumbar plexus, 

 or some of their branches having undergone some traumatic hurt 

 which may prove more or less refractory to treatment. 



4th. ^Isphi/xla. — According to Peuch and Toussaint, this ac- 

 cident may result from the ignorance of assistants, who, in con- 

 trolling the animal and keeping him down on the bed, have com- 

 pressed the nostrils too tightly ; or again it may be caused by the 

 excessive pressure .of the throat straj^s of the halter, or of the rope 

 which encircles the neck when a horse is placed in position for 

 castration. To explain the causes of this accident should be, with 

 an intelligent operator, sufficiently to hint the means of prevent- 

 ing its occurrence. 



Conclusions. — A review of the matters we have been considering 

 in this chapter may not be out of place, nor unprofitable, even at 

 the risk of being, perhajDS, a little repetitious. In view of the oc- 

 currence of these accidents, and aj)]Dreciating the responsibility 

 assumed by the surgeon when about performing an operation 

 upon a more or less valuable animal, he cannot but be conscious 

 of the obligations which impose themselves upon him to take every 

 precaution to avoid them. He should therefore guard against 

 their eventual contingency, by closely inquiring concerning the 

 condition of his patient, and by satisfying himself that every part 

 of the ajDparatus of restraint is in good order ; should avoid rough 

 treatment and employ anesthesia when possible, and never put an 

 animal in a constrained position for treatment when an operation 

 can be otherwise performed more advantageously and easily and 

 comfortably to his patient, and he should never allow him to re- 

 main in his restrained and compulsory recumbent position longer 

 than is strictly necessary. And above all, he should never under- 

 take an operation without having fully acquainted the owner of 

 the animal of the possibility of accidents. The fact of thus ex- 

 plainiag matters to an owner, and of obtaining his intelligent con- 

 sent does not, of course, relieve the siu'geon of his responsibility, 

 but rather, on the contrary, confirms and increases it by thus add- 

 ing a new, though an implied pledge to his employer to devote 

 his most conscientious endeavors and exercise his best skill in the 

 matter, in token of his appreciation of the confidence placed in his 

 skill and faithfulness. 



