90 ORANGE COUNTY 



THE PULSE. 



The i)ulso is a very useful assistant to the veterinary 

 surgeon, whose patients cannot describe either the 

 seat or degree of ailment or pain. In a state of health 

 the heart beats in a horse about thirty-six times a 

 minute. This is said to be the standard pulse— the 

 pulse of health. Where it beats naturally there can 

 be little materially wrong. The most convenient 

 place to feel the pulse is at the lower jaw, a little 

 behind the spot where the sub-maxillary artery and 

 vein, and the parotid duct, come from under the jaw. 

 There the number of pulsations will be easily counted, 

 and the character of the pulse, a matter of fully equal 

 importance, will be clearly ascertained. 



When the pulse reaches fifty or fifty-five, some 

 degree of fever may be apprehended, and proper pre- 



and tetanus lost many a victim. The forceps have been introduced, and 

 with much success, in castration, and thus the principal danger of that 

 operation, as well as the most paiDful part of it, is removed. The colt will 

 be a fair subject for this experiment. On the sheep and the calf It may 

 be readily performed, and the operator will have the pleasing conscious- 

 ness of rescuing many a poor animal from the unnecessary infliction of 

 XortxiXQ.—Spooner. 



