SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 311 



before it is ready to break, and should be done with a sharp lance, a 

 crucial incision sometimes being necessary. The cavity should be syr- 

 inged out with tepid water, which is better if mildly antiseptic. Care 

 should be taken not to allow the wound to close too rapidly, and to pre- 

 vent this a tent of lint or oakum should be introduced. 



WOTJJTDS. 



It is probably not going too far to say that as a general rule wounds 

 of the bovine species, unless sufficiently serious to endanger the ani- 

 mal's life, are left uncared for. The poor suffering creatures are too 

 often, even in fly-time, left to endure untold torture from wounds not 

 at first of much importance, but which, from the constant irritation 

 caused by flies, dirt, etc., often develop into hideous, unhealthy sores, 

 which can not fail, even when they do heal, to leave extensive and last- 

 ing blemishes as silent records of the owner's thriftlessuess and inhu- 

 manity. 



The comparatively low market value of all but the full-blood and 

 pedigreed animal precludes an owner (save in a few exceptional cases, 

 inspired by a higher than ordinary sense of humanity) from entertain- 

 ing professional assistance. It is more than doubtful whether the suf- 

 fering creature does not go from bad to worse when its case is made 

 over to the tender mercies of the ignorant local cow-leech, to whom 

 "wolf in the tail" is a terrifying living presence, and "hollow horn" a 

 solid fact, and whose sole claim to erudition in such matters consists of 

 a generally conceited ability to manufacture on scientific prescriptions 

 an artificial substitute for the cud supposed to be " lost." 



There is yet another class of owners who entertain an infinite and 

 Mind belief in liniments and patent nostrums, which are not only an 

 unnecessary expense, but sometimes by their very action retard rather 

 than expedite the process by which nature in her unerring wisdom 

 repairs the injured tissues, tendons, and bony structure. 



It should always be borne in mind that although some applications 

 are stimulating, and therefore serve as a useful ally in the process of 

 restoration, it is after all to nature we must look to renovate the injured 

 parts, and all that the most skillful can do is to intelligently aid her by 

 combating those conditions which are calculated to interfere with her 

 beneficent endeavors. All that the most suitable applications can 

 accomplish in the case of wounds is in the first place to prevent the 

 access of those poisonous germs which exist in the surroundings of the 

 animal, such as the soil and the manure, and in the second when the 

 process of repair is for some reason temporarily inactive or altogether 

 arrested to incite that curative intlammntion which is the invariable 

 method by which the cure is effected. 



Some owners may urge that it has always been their practice to use 

 some shotgun prescription that has earned for itsolf a reputation, because 

 it was supposed to have routed a rash on the youngest baby, and proved 



