SURGICAL OPEEATIONS. 



By William Dickson and William Herbert Lowe, D. V. S. 

 [Revised in 1904 by William Herbert Lowe.] 



Surgery is both a science and an art. The success of surgical 

 operations depends on the judgment, skill, and dexterity, as well 

 as upon the knowledge of the operator. The same fimdamental 

 principles underlie and govern animal and human surgery, although 

 their applications have a wide range and are veiy different in many 

 essential particulars. We must not lose sight of the fact that hygiene 

 and sanitation are essential to the best results in veterinary as well 

 as in human surgery. 



Asepsis is an ideal condition which, although not always possible 

 in animal surgeiy, is highly important in connection with the me- 

 chanical details of all surgical operations in proportion to the nature 

 and seriousness of the same. Aseptic surgeiy may be said to be such 

 as is preserved from contamination by poisonous materials, whether 

 such poisons be applied directly to it or be generated in it by the 

 action of germs that gain access to it and find within it the conditions 

 favorable to their growth. It should be borne in mind that there are 

 three ways that a wound may be kept aseptic; by the protection it 

 receives from the first, at the hands of the surgeon, from the access 

 of septic agents; by the power of living tissue to resist and destroy 

 septic agents, and by application to the wound of substances which 

 destroy them. 



Local and general anesthesia should be resorted to in painfid and 

 serious surgical operations, as operations upon all living creatures 

 should be humanely performed and all unnecessary' pain and suffer- 

 ing avoided. Anesthesia is necessary where absolute immobility of 

 the patient is essential, and where entire muscular relaxation is 

 indispensable. The anesthetic condition is also favorable for the 

 reduction of displaced organs. 



Large animals have to be cast and secured before an anesthetic is 

 administered. For complete anesthesia chloroform is generally em- 

 ployed; sometimes ether and chloroform. A sponge is wet wdth the 

 anesthetic and placed in a nose bag and the animal allowed to inhale 

 the fumes. The amount of chloroform required to produce insensi- 

 bility to external impressions varies much in different cases and must 

 be regulated, as well as the admixture of air, by a competent assistant. 



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