146 ELEMENTABY OPERATIONS. 



Fig. 179.— Bandage for Longitudinal Wounds. 



surgeon's plasters. They are better adapted for use, with the 

 smaller, than with the larger animals, answering all the require- 

 ments with the former class. They are composed of various in- 

 ingredients, differently combined, such as black pitch, with resin, 

 Venice turpentine, etc., and oils, to improve their flexibihty, and 

 aid their curative qualities. 



Venice tm-pentine, alone, is sometimes spread over the bandages, 

 also a mixture of tar and Biu'gundy pitch. Pitch, alone, when 

 melted and mixed with cut oakum or tow, forms a good adhesive 

 mixture. The ordinary adhesive, or diachyton, or lead plaster, 

 used in human medicine, is of great value in the surgery of small 

 animals, and we have used it with great satisfaction with both 

 large and small patients, appljoag it in long strips, rolling them 

 around the affected region in two or thi'ee thicknesses. Collodion 

 has also been highly recommended. Either alone, or appHed with 

 thin linen, or what is better, with wadding, it forms over the sur- 

 face of a wound, not only an adhesive plaster, but also a jDrotec- 

 tive dressing. Plasters are, in some cases, used alone as means of 

 reunion, and in the treatment of fractures, they form a powerful 

 adjunct in controlling the displacements of fragments of bone. 

 They are, however, also frequently used to reinforce other means 

 of reunion, and especially deep sutures. 



D. — Sutures. 

 In all the category of sui'gical detail, there is nothing so effec- 

 tive, or indeed indispensable, as the suture, properly apphed, for 



