459 



pins in a simple skin wound bein^ inserted one-eighth inch from the 

 edge, and when both lips have been transfixed in this way a thread 

 (or liair) carried snccessivelj' around the tAvo ends of the pin and made 

 to describe a figure S will hold the wound close. When the stitching 

 is not continuous from end to end of the wound the apposition of the 

 edges will be rendered more perfect by the application of strips of 

 sticking plaster in the intervals. 



When efforts at primary union have failed and pus has formed, or 

 fermentative changes have occurred on the raw surfaces and the lips 

 gape more or less, some antiseptic dressing will be required, as in the 

 case of lacerated and contused wounds. 



In cases where an incised wound has had foreign bodies or septic 

 ferments introduced into it, these should first be removed. A current 

 of water that has been boiled and cooled is one of the best methods of 

 cleansing a wound, and there is no objection to the addition of one- 

 twentieth of its amount of carbolic acid, as this will tend to destroy 

 any germ life that might otherwise prove fatal to the healing process. 

 Then the wound may be stitched up as if it had been clean, and a 

 daily dressing, of carbolic acid 1 part and sweet oil 10 parts, may be 

 applied. 



For a wound on the convex surface of a joint, where stitches are 

 not sufficient to keep the lips accurately applied to each other, the 

 movement of the joint may be temporarily abolished by the applica- 

 tion of a splint and bandage, and in any such case the bandage should 

 be applied uniformly from the hoof upward, as othervrise the limb 

 below the bandage is liable to swell or even die. 



The treatment of contused, punctured, and lacerated wounds demands 

 cleansing and antiseptic applications as for an incised wound, but as 

 primary adhesion is next to impossible, the same accurate apposition 

 of the lips by stitching is not so essential. If portions of skin or other 

 tissue are so detached or crushed that they can not possibly live, they 

 may be cut off, but if there is any doubt on this matter the injured 

 portion should be left and every attempt should be made to preserve 

 it. Such portions of the wound as are free from such fatally injured 

 parts may be disinfected by the carbolic lotion referred to above, and 

 stitched up like a clean wound. The severely injured parts may be 

 left open to discharge, and the whole may be dressed daily with the 

 carbolized oil, or with a solution of one part of mercuric chloride in 

 one thousand i)arts water. 



GranuJatiny wounds may be irrigated with the mercuric chloride 

 solution and if the granulations become inflamed (soft, flabby, exu- 

 berant, rising above the edges of the wound) they may be touched 

 lightly with a stick of lunar caustic so as to leave them covered with 

 a white film. 



In all wounds that fail to heal by primary union an elaborate anti- 

 septic treatment is desirable, but the difficulty of applying this suc- 

 cessfully to the hoi-se in an ordinary stable would seem to forbid a 

 lengthy description in a book of this kind. 



