59 



wound has tboroughly healed and no longer requires the support of the 

 stitches. It will be found in nearly all wounds that when once brought 

 together they do best afterwards with the application of dry dressings. 

 Iodoform is excellent but expensive. Mixed with about 10 parts of boracic 

 acid, it makes a useful dressing. Plain powdered charcoal answers well ; it 

 has the advantage of being cheap, and there is any amount of it in the bush 

 after burning off. Half boracic and half charcoal does very well. The 

 wound should be continually dusted over with it. Bandages are all 

 right in their way, but if they can be done without, all the better. 

 Wet applications, such as oils and lotions, do not seem to act so satisfactorily 

 as dry dressings; they keep the wound weak, and there is a tendency to 

 a prolongation of the natural process of repair. In the case of a wound that 

 has not been attended to for some few days after the injury has happened, 

 the edges of which are dry and beginning to scab over, it will be necessary, 

 before attempting to bring it together, to scarify or scrape the edges with a 

 knife until raw and bleeding, so as to make it as it were fresh again and give 

 things another start. Wounds no doubt will often heal if left entirely to 

 nature, but nature does not always make a very artistic job of it. and needs 

 a little help if we do not desire to see ugly blemishes remaining. A blemish, 

 more especially one on the front of the knee of a valuable horse, lowers the 

 value of the animal in the market ; and it is wonderful wiiat can be done to 

 avoid such things if wounds are properly attended to and in time. 



Flies are a great trouble in this country, as in all warm climates, and 

 every injury requires to be very carefully covered up and kept protected from 

 them. They often poison otherwise healthy wounds, by inoculating them with 

 matter of an injurious nature. Tar. used so frequently in the bush as an 

 application to all sorts of wounds, has certainly much to recommend it. and 

 flies do not care about it. Farmers and those who are isolated in the wilder- 

 ness and have to depend upon their own ingenuity in eases of emergency 

 would do well to provide themselves with some simple remedies applicable to 

 ordinary injuries. 



A few surgical needles, suture thread, bandage.s, carbolic acid, phenyle, 

 and such like, should always be on hand. As for medicine, well, it should 

 seldom be wanted in this land of sunshine; and when proper attention is paid 

 to the exercising, feeding, watering and housing of the animals, I am of the 

 opinion that most of the physic may be thrown overboard, and it will never 

 be missed. — Journal of Agriculture. Wcatcrn Ausiralia, January, 1[)0S. 



CONTAGIOUS ABORTIOX. 



Prevention and Treatment of. 



Aborting cows should be isolated from all others and from other breeding 



female farm animals. Separate stable utensils should be used and, if possible, 



separate attendants should care for these animals. All. stalls where aborting 



cows have stood should be thoroughly scraped and cleaned and washed with 



