BLOOD-VESSELS AND VEINS OF THE NECK. IGl 



groom sometimes bestows a great deal of pains in getting the mane of his norse into 

 crood and fashionable order. It is wetted, and plaited, and loaded with lead ; and 

 every hair that is a little too long is pulled out. The mane and tail of the heavy 

 draught-horse are seldom thin ; but on the well-bred horse, the thin, well-arranged 

 mane is very ornamental.* 



THE BLOOD-VESSELS OF THE NECK. 



Running down the under part of the neck, are the principal blood-vessels, going to 

 and returning from the head, with the windpipe and gullet. Our cut could not give 

 a view of the arteries that carry the blood from the heart to the head, because they 

 are too deeply seated. The external arteries are the carotid, of which there are two. 

 They ascend the neck on either side, close to the windpipe, until they have reached 

 the middle of the neck, where they somewhat diverge, and lie more deeply. They 

 are covered by the sterno-maxillaris muscle, which has been just described, and are 

 separated from the jugulars by a small portion of muscular substance. Having 

 reached the larynx, they divide into two branches, the external and the internal ; the 

 first goes to every part of the face, and the second to the brain. 



The vertebral arteries run through canals in the bones of the neck, supplying the 

 neighbouring parts as they climb, and at length enter the skull at the large hole in the 

 occipital bone, and ramify on and supply the brain. 



Few cases can happen, in which it would be either necessary or justifiable to bleed 

 from an artery. Even in mad-staggers, the bleeding is more practicable, safer, and 

 more effectual, from the jugular vein, than from the temporal or any other artery. If 

 an artery is opened in the direction in which it runs, there is sometimes very great 

 diflSculty in stopping the bleeding; it has even been necessary to tie the vessel, in 

 order to accomplish this purpose. If the artery is cut across, its coats are so elastic, 

 that the two ends are often immediately drawn apart under the flesh at each side, and 

 are thereby closed ; and after the first gush of blood, no more can be obtained. 



THE VEINS OF THE NECK. 



The external veins which return the blood from the head to the heart are the jugu- 

 lars. The horse has but one on either side. The human being and the ox have two. 

 The jugular takes its rise from the base of the skull ; it then descends, receiving 

 other branches in its way towards the angle of the jaw and behind the parotid gland ; 

 and emerging from that, as seen at /, p. 125, and being united to a large branch from 

 the face, it takes its course down the neck. Veterinary surgeons and horsemen have 

 agreed to adopt the jugular, a little way below the union of these two branches, as 

 the usual place for bleeding ; and a very convenient one it is, for it is easily got at, 

 and the vessel is large. The manner of bleeding, and the states of constit\ition and 

 disease in which it is proper, will be hereafter spoken of; an occasional consequence 

 of bleeding being at present taken under consideration. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE VEIN. 



It is usual and proper, after bleeding, to bring the edges of the wound carefully 

 together, and to hold them in contact by inserting a pin through the skin, with a little 

 tow twisted round it. In ninety-nine cases out of a hundred the wound quickly heals, 

 and gives no trouble ; but in a few instances, from using a blunt instrument, or a dirty 

 or rusty one ; or striking too hard and bruising the vein ; or, in the act of pinning 

 up, pulling the skin too far from the neck and suffering some blood to insinuate itself 

 into the cellular texture ; or neglecting to tie the horse up for a little while, and thus 

 enabling him to rub the bleeding place against the manger and tear out the pin; or 

 from the animal being worked immediately afterward ; or the reins of the bridle rub- 

 bing against it; or several blows having been clumsily given, and a large and ragged 

 wound made ; or from some disposition to inflammation about the horse (for the 

 bleeder is not always' in fault) the wound does not heal, or if it closes for a little 

 while, it re-opens. A slight bleeding appears — some tumefaction commences — the 

 edges of the orifice separate, and become swollen and red — a discharge of sanious, 



* Stewart's Stable CEconomy, p. 110. 

 14 ' v 



