INJURIES TO THE AETEKIES. 429 



or on the arterial wound. Ligature consists in securing 

 the vessel at the wound, both above and below it, and 

 having fixed it in a pair of artery forceps without including 

 other tissues, especially nerves, a ligature of silk or thread is 

 applied. The artery must be tied firmly, and the strength to 

 employ, is ascertained by the force required to cut through 

 the inner coat without severing the intestine. 



Pressure at a distance from the seat of haemorrhage is 

 rarely employed in veterinary practice, and not of great ser- 

 vice. I have heard of the posterior aorta having been 

 pressed upon through the rectum, to favour stagnation in a 

 case of bleeding from some gluteal branches, but I doubt the 

 effectual application of such pressure, and would prefer the 

 more safe surgical method of tying the vessels at the seat of 

 injury. It is a rule, that unless circumstances are opposed 

 to the adoption of the plan, a surgeon must cut down on the 

 bleeding artery and tie it. With small vessels such as the 

 metacarpal, pressure suffices. This must be applied so as to 

 bear firmly on the arterial wound. A small solid compress 

 being applied over the bleeding vessel, a wider one is placed 

 on that, and others progressively wider are applied in suc- 

 cession, and fixed by a bandage. 



When an artery has been tied, attention must be paid to 

 the separation of the ligature, which may be attended with 

 such an amount of ulceration as to open the blood-vessel, 

 and cause it to bleed freely. This is called secondary 

 haemorrhage, which is very rare in the lower animals, and 

 must be treated by ligature again. 



VEINS VENOUS HAEMORRHAGE. 



Animals are liable to punctures of the veins, and may lose 

 a sufficient amount of blood to die when the large vessels 

 are freely opened; but unless the cutaneous orifice is too 



