CUTS, TEAES, AND BITES. 45 



properly treated, heals as if by magic ; and in three days large surfaces of many 

 inches in extent will often be firmly healed by a kind of glue thrown out from 

 the cut surfaces, which afterwards becomes organised. In the dog and horse, 

 however, no such glue is thrown out, and the oozing is always of a watery 

 nature ; so that apposition must always be maintained by stitches, and even they 

 are only of use in preventing extreme displacement while they remain inserted. 

 In slight cuts, tears, and bites, therefore, it is better to leave them alone to the 

 healing powers of the dog's tongue; but in those cases where a large flap is 

 torn down, as in the legs, for instance, a stitch or two should always be inserted, 

 over which a bandage should be fixed, and the- dog kept muzzled until union 

 takes place. Without the last precaution stitches and bandages are of no use, 

 since the dog will always manage to remove them, and will tear out any stitches 

 which may be inserted, however carefully they may be tied. The first thing to 

 be done is to wash the parts, if dirty, and then with a common needle and 

 thread to put in several stitches, according to the extent of the wound ; but 

 only fixing it so as to keep it nearly in position, for an exact adaptation is of 

 no use whatever. In putting in the stitches, the following is the plan to be 

 adopted: take the needle and thread and insert it in the outside of the skin, 

 on one side of the wound, and bring it out on the inside; then pass it from 

 the inside towards the out of the opposite part of the corresponding flap on the 

 other side, and tie the ends so as to close the wound. Repeat this as often as 

 necessary, and cover all up with the bandage as already directed. After four 

 or five days the threads may be cut and removed, because they are no longer 

 serviceable, and only serve to irritate the skin; and from this time the whole 

 dependence must be placed upon the bandage in keeping the parts together. 

 In some parts as, for instance, the flank, a bandage can scarcely be applied; 

 but even there it is wonderful how nature fills up an apparently irremediable 

 gap. I have often seen a flap torn down by a spike, which has hung down 

 from the flank for five or six inches, but at the end of a month scarcely any 

 scar can be seen. The owner therefore need never despair as long as the skin 

 only is the seat of the accident; but when the abdominal muscles also are torn 

 the bowels are apt to protrude, and the parts, if left to themselves, will never 

 regain their original condition. Here a circular stitch must be practised, so as to 

 pucker up the parts like the mouth of an old-fashioned purse, and if the walls 

 are thick enough the plan may be practised with success; but in the thin 

 tendinous expansions covering the middle of the belly there is great difficulty in 

 carrying out this plan of rectifying the injury. The mode by which nature 

 heals all the wounds of the dog is by granulation, in which small red bladders 

 are thrown out by both surfaces, which, after they are in contact for some hours 

 or days, coalesce and form a bond of union; but if they are allowed to rub 

 against each other this union cannot take place, and the growth is confined to 

 the angle of the wound only. Hence the use and necessity of a bandage, which 

 keeps the two surfaces in close contact, and hastens the cure in a remark- 

 able manner; effecting in ten days what would often require ten weeks if left 



