190 BLEEDING. 



should not be. taken to draw the skin too much from the neck, otherwise blood will 

 insinuate itself between it and the muscles beneath, and cause an unsightly and 

 sometimes troublesome swelling. 



The blood should be received into a vessel, the dimensions of which are exactly 

 known, so that the operator may be able to calculate at every period of the bleeding 

 the quantity that is subtracted. Care likewise should be taken that the blood flows 

 in a regular stream into the centre of the vessel, for if it is suffered to trickle down 

 the sides, it will not afterwards undergo those changes by which we partially judge 

 of the extent of inflammation. The pulse, however, and the symptoms of the case 

 collectively, will form a better criterion than any change in the blood. Twenty-four 

 hours after the operation, the edges of the wound will have united, and the pin should 

 be withdrawn. When the bleeding is to be repeated, if more than three or four hour? 

 have elapsed, it will be better to make a fresh incision rather than to open the old 

 wound. 



Few directions are necessary for the use of the lancet. They who are competent 

 to operate with it, will scarcely require any. If the point is sufficiently sharp the 

 lancet can scarcely be too broad-shouldered ; and an abscess lancet will generally 

 make a freer incision than that in common use. Whatever instrument is adopted, too 

 much care cannot be taken to have it perfectly clean, and very sharp. It should be 

 carefully wiped and dried immediately after the operation, otherwise, in a very short 

 time, the edges will begin to be corroded. 



For general bleeding the jugular vein is selected as the largest superficial one, and 

 most easily got at. In every affection of the head, and in cases of fever or extended 

 inflammatory action, it is decidedly the best place for bleeding. In local inflamma- 

 tion, blood may be taken from any of the superficial veins. In supposed affections 

 of the shoulder, or of the fore-leg or foot, the plate vein, which comes from the inside 

 of the arm, and runs upwards directly in front of it towards the jugular, may be opened. 

 In affections of the hind extremity, blood is snmetirnes extracted from the snphccna, or 

 thigh-vein, which runs across the inside of the thigh. In foot cases it may be taken 

 from the coronet, or, much more safely, from the toe ; not by cutting out, as the far- 

 rier does, a piece of the sole at the toe of the frog, which sometimes causes a wound 

 difficult to heal, and followed by festering, and even by canker; but cutting down with 

 a fine drawing-knife, called a searcher, at the union between the crust and the solo at 

 the very toe until the blood flows, and, if necessary, encouraging its discharge by dip- 

 ping the foot in warm water. The mesh-work of both arteries and veins will be here 

 divided, and blood is generally obtained in any quantity that may be needed. The 

 bleeding may be stopped with the greatest ease, by placing a bit of tow in the little 

 groove that has been cut, and tacking the shoe over it.* 



* A great improvement has lately been introduced in the method of arresting arterial 

 haemorrhage. The operation is very simple, and, with coinmon care, successful. The instru- 

 ment is a pair of artery forceps, with rather sharper teeth than the common forceps, and the 

 blades held close by a slide. The vessel is laid bare, detached from the cellular substance 

 around it. and the artery then grasped by the forceps, the instrument deviating a very little 

 from the line of the artery. The vessel is now divided close to the forceps, and behind them, 

 and the forceps are twisted four or five times roimd. The forceps are then loosened, and, 

 generally speaking, not more than a drop or two of blood will have been lost. This method 

 of arresting bleedina has been applied by several scientific and benevolent men with almost 

 constant sucecss. It has been readily and effectually practised in docking, and our patients 

 have escaped much torture, and tetanus lost many a victim. The forceps have been intro- 

 duced, and with much success, in castration, and thus the principal danger of that operation, 

 as well as the most painful part of it. is removed. The colt will be a fair subject for this 

 experiment. On the sheep and the calf it may be readily performed, and the operator wil) 

 have the pleasing consciousness of rescuing many a poor animal from the unnecessary inflic- 

 tion of torture. 



