106 SPRING-TIME SURGERY 



dip, ten percent solution. An assistant does this 

 work. He dips his hands frequently in an anti- 

 septic solution. Most of the heifers go to market, 

 but one of my clients has butchered a few and he 

 tells me that there is an adhesion of skin and 

 deeper structures at the operative wound, but 

 that the string has disappeared. When every- 

 thing is going smoothly the operator works a 

 little faster than the stitcher. 



Steel sacking needles, five inches long are best 

 but the six-inch needle will do. Have a mechanic 

 take the temper out, and give them a slight curve 

 in the pointed one-third, with the curved part 

 flattened and a cutting edge on each side and then 

 re-tempered. Good steel needles are hard to get, 

 the common ones will not do. The edge should be 

 kept sharp enough to cut the suture string when 

 the stitches are complete. This is the only good 

 design for a needle. Such a one will go through 

 the gastrocnemius tendon or plantar cushion with- 

 out hard pressure and without a jerk. 



After Treatment.— I dress liberally with pine 

 tar thickened with flour according to the weather 

 and let them drift on to good pasture direct from 



