WOUNDS. 115 



or more stitches at the distance of half an inch from each other. A 

 surgeon's crooked needle, or a glover's large triangularly pointed 

 needle, will be necessary for this purpose. A little dry soft clean tow 

 should then be placed over the wound, and the whole covered by a 

 bandage closely, but not too tightly applied. Let none of the farrier's 

 abominable tents, or pledgets of tow, be introduced : the intervals 

 between the stitches will be quite sufficient to permit the escape of 

 any matter that may be formed. The wound should not, if possible, 

 be opened for two days after the first dressing.' 



When it is at length examined, let none of the hot torturing appli- 

 cations of the farrier be used. If it looks tolerably healthy, and is 

 going on well, it may be dressed with tincture of myrrh and aloes, or 

 with the Healing Ointment, (No. 10, p. 53), or with both ; a pledget 

 of tow soaked in the tincture being put immediately upon the wound, 

 and more tow, with the ointment spread upon it, placed over this. 



If proud flesh should begin to spring, the wound should be first 

 washed with a strong solution of blue vitriol, and then dressed with 

 the tincture ; or if the discharge is very offensive, the wound should 

 be well bathed with the Disinfectant Lotion, (No. 34, p. 85), and 

 then the tincture applied. It is high time for all the disgraceful tor- 

 turino- applications of the farrier and cowleech to be discarded, espe- 

 cially as Nature is much kinder to these animals than she is to us; 

 and wounds that would in the human being puzzle the surgeon, heal 

 readily in cattle, almost without any application. 



If it is a punctured wound, its direction and depth must be care- 

 fully ascertained. Fomentations of marsh-mallows, or poppy-heads 

 boiled in water, should be applied for a few days, in order to abate 

 inflammation, and the tincture of aloes and myrrh should be injected 

 into the wound morning and night; the injured parts being covered 

 if the flies are troublesome, but otherwise left open. If the wound 

 runs downwards and the matter cannot escape, but collects at the 

 bottom, and seems to be spreading, a setcn should be passed into the 

 original orifice, and directed as far as the very lowest part of the 

 sinus, or pipe, and there brought out. There is never occasion for 

 the introduction of lint into these wounds : if they are well syringed 

 with the tincture to the very bottom, and a seton passed through the 

 sinus, should one happen to be formed, they will do very well. 



From the yoke being too heavy, or not fitting the neck, the shoul- 

 ders of oxen will sometimes get sadly wrung, and deep ulcers will 

 be produced, resembling fistulous withers in the horse. These ulcers 

 are very troublesome to deal with. The secret, however, of properly 

 treating them, is to pass a seton through the very bottom of the ulcer, 

 in order that the matter may flow freely out: then, in the majority of 

 cases, the wound will readily heal, or if it should not, the diabolical 

 scalding mixtures of the farrier are never wanted. If I allowed any 

 scalding mixture it would be boiling tar, because tar boils at a very 

 low degree of temperature. The surface of the wound would be suf- 

 ficiently stimulated, and the life of the pait would not be destroyed ; 



