TIIE MODERN HORSE DOCTOR. 365 



The common methods of performing this operation is by means 

 of a docking machine, or other sharp instrument, which takes off 

 the tail at one stroke ; but the operator, unless he understands 

 his business, often finds he has severed one of the bones of the 

 tail and left behind some projecting spiculce, which afterwards 

 have to be removed. To stanch hemorrhage a red-hot iron is 

 applied to the stump ; and this is the most barbarous proceeding 

 of the whole, for it is only necessary to seal the arteries with a 

 pointed budding-iron, brought to a white heat, and merely touch 

 them with the same. For if the iron be not sufficiently hot, or 

 should it be kept in contact with the part too long, it will bring 

 away an eschar, and thus the process has to be repeated. The 

 common iron, with a hole in the centre, used for closing the arte- 

 ries, is objectionable, because it is calculated to come in contact 

 with the muscles of the tail, and must necessarily contract them, 

 and leave the bone more exposed. But there is, actually, no 

 necessity for cauterization, for the artery can be secured by lig- 

 ature in less time than it requires to sear it. 



WOUNDS. 



The treatment of wounds depends altogether upon their nature 

 and cause. It is very difficult in the horse — although not so in 

 man — to heal a wound by what is called "Jirst intention" 

 which means union by medium of coagulable lymph without 

 suppuration. The definition of wound, technically, is, a solution 

 of continuity in the soft parts, produced by some mechanical 

 agent. Wounds are divided into incised, contused, lacerated, 

 punctured, and penetrating. 



Incised Wounds. 



Incised wounds are those inflicted by sharp instruments. On 

 the human body they often heal without any subsequent inflam- 

 mation beyond what nature sets up in the restorative process ; 

 but the difficulty in the horse is, that we cannot always keep the 

 parts in contact, and therefore it is not so easy to unite them. 

 In many cases, after having been at the trouble to adjust by 

 31* 



