VETERINARY 



On Wounds in General* 



Of Incised Wounds. 



ALL wounds may be divided into Incised, Con- 

 tused, and Punctured ; each of these require dif- 

 ferent modes of treatment. V/e shall first take into 

 consideration the Incised, as being the most simple. 



When the wound is first made, and the cutting 

 instrument withdrawn, a retraction of the parts, 

 and bleeding, follow. If it is only through the 

 skin and cellular membrane, the degree of retrac- 

 tion will depend on the tension of the skin ; if 

 muscular fibres are divided acrofs, the retraction 

 will be considerably greater than if the wound was 

 made in the course of them. The bleeding will 

 depend on the vascularity of the part, and whether 

 the wound is made acrofs the muscles, or in a lon- 

 gitudinal direction, as in the first case the large, 

 but in the latter, probably only the smaller vefsels 

 will be cut. 



After the blcod has flowed some time, the 

 bleeding by degrees ceases, partly from the con- 

 traction, and partly from the lymph plugging up 

 the mouths of the divided vefoels - y but m the sraaH 



