SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 



By the late Dr. WILLIAM DICKSON, Veterinarian to the State Farmers' Institute 

 of Minnesota; revised and completed by Dr. WM. HERBERT LOWE, Super- 

 intendent of the United States Quarantine for the port of Xev> Tori:, Garficld, X. J. 



There are fewer surgical operations performed on the cow than on 

 the horse. Various causes conduce to this result. Naturally plethoric, 

 slow in their motions, and even when at liberty, save under occasional 

 exceptional circumstances, singularly averse to active exertion of any 

 kind, animals of the ox tribe consequently enjoy a practical immunity 

 from a proportion of accidents which in animals of a more buoyant and 

 active temperament so frequently entail results demanding surgical 

 intervention. Oxen are seldom used nowadays for purposes of draft 

 or burden, and even when put to either of these uses the risk of any- 

 thing like serious injury is greatly diminished by their deliberate move- 

 ment. The nature of their food and their usual environments all tend 

 to operate more or less in the same direction. 



There is, however, another and a very material reason. A cow, an 

 ox, or any individual of the species, represents to the ordinary owner 

 just so much capital not usually a very large amount and in the 

 event of accident or ailment monetary or utilitarian considerations 

 have an important bearing on the question of recourse to professional 

 assistance. An ox is but an ox anyhow, and, although the interest of 

 his owner sometimes requires to have a sick one treated, the animal 

 itself, I fear, is but seldom regarded as possessing much if any claim 

 to moral protection, still less to sentimental consideration. If he is 

 injured he has got to be mended, but, like a piece of torn currency, how 

 does not so much matter. Surely humanity demands kind treatment 

 for all animals, and even when compassion and self interest do not join 

 hands the sick or wounded bovine has quite as much claim to all pos- 

 sible relief from pain and suflcring as the most valuable or highly 

 endowed of living creatures. 



The primary object of a work of this kind, therefore, is to treat of the 

 best means known to practical science in a style and language so plain 

 that an owner will himself bo able to come to the assistance of his suf- 

 fering dumb dependents, and, in many of the emergencies which occur 

 on the farm or the ranch, be able, with the help of the knowledge thus 



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