162 ANATOMY AND DISEASES OF THE NECK. 



bloody fluid proceeds from the wound, followed, perhaps, in a few days by purulent 

 matter. The neck swells, and is hot and tender both above and below the incision. 

 The lips of the wound become everted — the swelling increases, particularly above 

 the wound, where the vein is most hard and cordy — the horse begins to loathe his 

 food, and little abscesses form round the orifice. The cordiness of the vein rapidly 

 increases. Not only the vein itself has become obstructed and its coats thickened, 

 but the cellular tissue inflamed and hardened, and is an additional source of irritation 

 and torture. 



The thickening of the vein extends to the bifurcation above : it occupies both 

 branches, and extends downward to the chest — even to the very heart itself, and the 

 patient dies. 



The '-^'o grand questions here are, the cause and the cure. The first would seem 

 to admit of an easy reply. A long list of circumstances has been just given which 

 would seem to refer the matter entirely to the operator ; yet, on the other hand, expe- 

 rience tells us that he has little to do with these morbid eflects of bleeding. Mr. 

 Percivall states, that Mr. Cherry tried several times to produce inflammation by the 

 use of rusty lancets, and escharotics of various kinds, and ligatures, and frequent 

 separation and friction of the granulating edges, hut in vain. Professor Spooner tried 

 *o produce the disease, but could not. 



On the other hand, it is well known that while inflammation rarely or never follows 

 the operation of bleeding bj'' some practitioners,, others are continually getting into 

 scrapes about it. The writer of this work had three house-pupils, two of whom he 

 used to trust to bleed his patients, and no untoward circumstance ever occurred; but 

 as surely as he sent the third, he had an inflamed vein to take care of. 



There is something yet undivulcred in the process of healing the vein, or in the 

 circumstances by which tliat healing is prevented. The most powerful causes pro- 

 bably are, that the lips of the wound have not been brought into immediate apposi- 

 tion, or that a portion of the hair — a single hair is sulTicient — has insinuated itself. 

 The horse has not, perhaps, had his head tied u]i to the reck after bleeding, which 

 should always be done for at least an hour, during which time the extravasated blood 

 will become firmly coagulated, and the flow of blood to the heart will establish its 

 uninterrupted course. It is also probable that atmospheric agency may be concerned 

 in the affair, or a diseased condition of the horse, and particularly a susceptibility 

 of taking on inflammatory action, although the exciting cause may be exceedingly 

 slight. 



Of the means of cure it is difficult to speak confidently. The wound should be 

 carefully examined — the divided edges brought into exact apposition, and any bail 

 interposed between them removed — tjie pin withdrawn or not, according to circum- 

 stances — the part carefully and long fomented, and a dose of physic administered. 

 If two or three days have passed and the discharge still remains, the application of 

 the budding-iron — not too large or too hot — may produce engorgement of the neigh- 

 bouring parts, and union of the lips of the wound. This should be daily, or every 

 second day, repeated, according to circumstances. A blister applied over the orifice, 

 or as far as the mischief extends, will often be serviceable. Here, likewise, the 

 parts will be brought into contact with each other, and pressed together, and union 

 may be eff"ected. " Sometimes,*' says Mr. Cartwright, " when the vein is in an 

 ulcerative state, I have laid it open, and applied caustic dressing, and it has healed 

 up. I have lately had a case in which five or six abscesses had formed aljove the 

 original wound, and the two superior ones burst through the parotid gland, the extent 

 of the ulceration being evident in the quantity of saliva that flowed through each 

 orifice."* 



The owner of the horse will find it his interest to apply to a veterinary practitionei 

 as soon as a case of inflamed vein occurs. 



Should the vein be destroyed, the horse will not be irreparably injured, and per« 

 haps, at no great distance of time, scarcely injured at all ; for nature is ingenious in 

 making provision to carry on the circulation of the blood. All the vessels convey- 

 ing the blood from the heart to the different parts of the frame, or bringing it back 



* Abstract of the Veterinary Medical Associalion, vol. iv. p. 185 



