242 VETERINARY OPERATIONS. 



does now and then occur, we should never wash with water er 

 other liquids a mere laceration, if no foreign matter, as dirt, &.c. be 

 suspected to be lodged within it, still less should we stuff it with 

 candle or tents of any kind. On the contrary, it should be care- 

 fully and smoothly brought together, and simply bound up in its 

 own blood ; and if it do not wholly unite at once, and by the first 

 intention, perhaps some portion of it may ; and at all events, its 

 future progress will be more natural, and the disfiguration less than 

 when stuffed with tents, tow, &c. or irritated with heating oils or 

 spirits. When an extensively lacerated wound takes place it is 

 common, and it is often necessary to insert sutures, or stitches, 

 into the lips of the wound : and here we have to notice another 

 considerable variation from the principles of human inflammation, 

 which is, that these stitches in the horse, ox, and dog, soon ulcerate 

 out, seldom remaining longer than the third or fourth day at far- 

 thest. It therefore is the more necessary to be careful, that by 

 perfect rest, and the appropriation of good bandages we secure the 

 wound from distortion. In this we may be assisted by strips of 

 sticking plaster, made with diachylon and pitch ; but these strips 

 should be guarded from touching the wound itself by means of lint 

 or tow first put over it. When in addition to laceration in a wound, 

 there is a destruction of substance, then the caution of washing will 

 not apply, as it will be necessary to bathe with some warming spirit, 

 as, tincture of myrrh, tincture of aloes, or friar's balsam, to assist in 

 restoring the life of the part, and in preventing mortification- 

 Bleeding must be stopped by pressure and astringents, as powdered 

 alum; when it is very considerable the vessel from whence the 

 blood comes must be taken up. When great inflammation follows 

 wounds or bruises, counteract it bybleeding, a cooling temperature, 

 opening medicines, and continual fomentations to the part itself. 



Balls and Drinks. 



111. Mode of giving a ball. Back the horse in his stall, and 

 being elevated on a stool, (not a bucket turned upside down,) gently 

 draw the tongue out of the mouth, so as to prevent its rising to 

 resist the passage of the hand : the tongue should however not be 

 laid hold of alone, but it should be held firmly by the fingers of tlie 

 left hand against the jaw. The ball previously oiled should be 

 taken into the right hand, which should be squeezed into as narrow 

 a shape as possible, must be passed up close to the roof of the mouth, 

 and the ball placed on the root of the tongue, when both hands 

 being withdrawn, it will readily pass down. This mode is much 

 preferable, when a person is at all handy, to using a balling iron. 



