462 WOUNDS. 



got rid of. But if the constitution or the parts do not possess 

 much irritability, if the ball be small and polished, and if it press 

 against no nerves, vessels, or other sensitive parts, it may, and 

 often does, remain for years without creating any disturbance ; 

 a cyst being formed for it in the belly of a muscle, or the inter- 

 stitial areolar tissue. 



Mortification supervening on gun-shot wounds may occur 

 under the following conditions : — (1.) When the injured parts 

 are irrecoverably disorganized, so that they immediately cease 

 to live : this sometimes happens to the tissues in the immediate 

 track of the ball, or to a whole limb struck by a spent ball. (2.) 

 From excess of inflammation following a wound. (3.) From 

 division of the great arterial or venous trunks. This is indicated 

 by mortification in the extremity of the limb ; the foot becomes 

 cold and insensible ; this state spreads up the limb, and the 

 parts immediately above those that are actually dead become 

 slightly tumefied and discoloured ; and if the animal is allowed 

 to live, the living parts become, in the course of two or three 

 days, hot, painful, and swollen to a gTeat extent. The constitu- 

 tion becomes affected ; there is restlessness, anxiety of face, the 

 expression of the eye is haggard ; fever runs high, and the poor 

 animal sinks, not having sufficient power to throw off the gan- 

 gi'ened part. 



Treatment. — If the ball has left the body, the treatment already 

 described for contused and punctured wounds will be applicable; 

 namely, for the stage of collapse, stimulants, as spirits of nitre 

 or carbonate of ammonia, and opium to relieve pain. If the 

 foreign body is still in the wound it should be removed by in- 

 cision, forceps, or otherwise ; but if it cannot be removed without 

 a very large incision, it had better be left alone, as it will be 

 brought within reach by the contraction and granulation of the 

 parts, and by the flow of pus ; or it may become encysted, and 

 give rise to no further trouble. If a ball has lodged in the sub- 

 stance of a bone, it should be removed by a chisel or trephine, or 

 necrosis will follow. 



Some wounds have peculiar names, very suggestive sometimes, 

 and very ridiculous at other times. Over-reach^ treads, speedy- 

 cuts, are bruises and contused wounds. 



An over-reach is a tread upon the coronet of the fore foot from 



