438 HEALTH AND DISEASE 



some mechanical contrivance, these vessels are closed or a clot is formed, 

 and further bleeding prevented. 



How is a gaping wound to be closed by a man without appliances? 

 Non possumus, is the answer that rises speedily to the lips of him who has 

 never tried. Besides, so many accidents occur within call of professional 

 aid that the habit of dependence becomes established, so that we regard 

 a serious piece of surgery as only possible with a powerful armamentarium 

 of modern appliances. These are useful, nay, admirable, but nearly every 

 civilized man carries with him some sort of means of stopping bleeding : a 

 piece of string, a scarf-pin, or common pin on his waistcoat corner, a pocket- 

 knife, a handkerchief, the lining of his hat and coat. With some of these, 

 and the hair in his horse's tail or mane, he can secure the edges of a gaping 

 wound or plug a deep one. If he has pins they can be pushed through the 

 skin, and with hair from the animal's mane a figure-of-eight suture may 

 be made, to confine and compress the parts. The handkerchief may serve 

 either as plug or bandage, or, failing sufficient length, material can be 

 obtained from the coat-lining or some other garment less valuable than the 

 life of the patient. Without pins, the happy possessor of a pocket-knife 

 can make skewers from the nearest hedgerow, and if not pointed enough to 

 go through the always tough skin of a horse, the small blade will make the 

 hole and the extemporized wooden pins be made to follow, when the figure- 

 of-eight suture before referred to will be the plan to adopt. 



In many cases of accident far from home, if actual haemorrhage does not 

 preclude movement, by which it would of course be excited, it is well to 

 remember that a horse can accomplish a short journey with comparatively 

 little pain or risk which he would be quite unable to perform when allowed 

 to become stiff. It is, therefore, advisable to decide at once whether to 

 wait succour or attempt removal. 



Injuries are often in such a position that none of the foregoing sugges- 

 tions are at all applicable, as, for instance, when a horse falls on his chin 

 and cuts his tongue badly. First aid in such a case is best rendered by 

 compelling the patient to keep his mouth shut, tying him round the muzzle 

 with the neck-scarf or pocket-handkerchief. The saliva and heat of the 

 mouth will do all that is needed to keep the wound from injury. 



Horses that have received injuries to the face, when in collision with 

 others or the vehicles they draw, may have divided vessels inside the 

 cheeks or the nostrils. The arteries are seen spurting with blood, but the 

 horseman has no forceps to pick them up with prior to being tied with the 

 piece of string with which we have supposed him to be provided; but his 

 own fingers may be used to produce the necessary compression to arrest 

 bleeding until assistance comes -to hand. 



