WOUNDS. 451 



WOUNDS OF THE ARTERIES. 



An acquaintance with the course of the large arteries is 

 essentially necessary to every veterinary practitioner, by 

 having which he may avoid them in operations ; or, when 

 an accident has occurred, this sort of knowledge will enable 

 him to stop the divided trunk. By the elasticity of the 

 external tunic, the excised ends of moderate arteries, are in 

 the horse attended with no danger ; the extremities re- 

 tract within the cellular tissue, and close their orifices. 

 We make use of this knowledge in our surgery, by treating 

 many haemorrhages, that have occurred from a partial 

 division of a vessel, by separating the whole, which stops 

 the flow. Hcemorrhages are, therefore, stopped by a com- 

 plete division of a moderate vessel ; by the application of 

 cold ; by styptics ; by compression ; by the firing iron ; or 

 by ligature. Styptics, in their usual acceptation, are seldom 

 applicable in the horse ; they act by mixing with the blood, 

 and with it either form a fine paste, or they coagulate the 

 blood within the vessels. Compression is proper when the 

 vessels cannot be easily got at, and may be made with a 

 piece of sponge, or a pledget of any other kind, pressed im- 

 mediately on the vessel. In docking, nicking, and some- 

 times in wounds of the legs, compression may be occasion- 

 ally applied with advantage. Firing was once a favourite 

 practice ; but is now almost in disuse. The budding iron is 

 only of material service in staying the blood from small 

 vessels, and is principally applied in veterinary practice 

 after docking, and during castration. In deep-seated wounds 

 the hot iron cannot be of any utility ; bat the vessel must 

 be sought for with a tenaculum or hook-like instrument, 

 which being applied to the end of an artery, draws it out 

 sufficiently to permit a double thread to be passed round 

 it : or when it cannot be got at in this way, some of the 

 surrounding substance should be included within the scoop 

 of a curved needle, and a ligature should then be made to 

 enclose all. In taking up very large arteries, it is prudent 

 to secure both ends, or the anastomosing branches may 

 furnish the end remote from the heart with blood. The 

 ligatures with which bloodvessels are now tied, are not 



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