LITHOTOMY. 577 



tions, green food, a loose box, a cool air, moderate clothing, 

 but ^particularly by walking exercise, swellings of the parts 

 may be prevented : if not, bleed and foment ; should sup- 

 puration follow, and sinuses form, treat as directed under 

 those heads ; and if tetanic symptoms start up, refer to that 

 article. There has been lately practised in India a novel 

 mode of castration, which is said to be the invention of a 

 Boer settled at the Cape of Good Hope. The cord is ex- 

 posed in the usual manner ; from the cord the artery is 

 singled out ; this vessel is scraped through with a coarse- 

 edged blunt knife, when the other constituents of the cord 

 are cut away, and the operation is finished. This method 

 is much praised by those who have adopted it, and is said 

 to be always attended with success. 



LITHOTOMY. 



Hurtrel d'Arboval's account of the progress of lithotomy 

 in veterinary practice commences in 1774. The second case 

 was successfully operated on in 1794 ; and at later periods 

 other veterinary surgeons have also performed it. ' In 

 monodactyles there are two methods of operating for the 

 stone ; one through the rectum, the other through the 

 bladder. The first, which consists in laying open the 

 bladder by a longitudinal incision made through the parietes 

 of the part of the rectum adherent to it, by means of a 

 straight bistoury, is easily practised ; but in its consequences 

 is dangerous in the extreme : in fact, it is an operation never 

 to be adopted but in a case where the magnitude of the 

 stone precludes its extraction through the neck of the 

 bladder. In all other cases, lithotomy by the urethra is to 

 be pursued. For its performance are required, a straight 

 probe-pointed bistoury, a whalebone fluted staff, and a pair of 

 forceps curved at the extremities. The animal should, if 

 practicable, be maintained in the erect posture. The tail 

 plaited and carried round on the right quarter, the operator 

 feels for the end of the staff introduced up the urethra, and 

 makes an incision directly upon it, from above downwards, 

 an inch and a half or two inches in length. Next, he in- 

 troduces the sound, and passes it onward into the bladder. 

 Now, placing the back of the bistoury within the groove of 

 the sound, by gliding the knife forwards, the pelvic portion 



pp 



