445 



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 cleau, 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 maybe temporarily abolished by the aiiplication of a splint 

 and bandage, and in any such case the bandage should bo applied uni- 

 formly from the hoof upward, as otherwise the limb below the bandage 

 is liable to swell or even die. 



The treatment of contused, punctured, and lacerated wotmds demands 

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

 primary adhesion is next to im^wssible, the same accurate apposition of 

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

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

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

 tion 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 dailj^ with the carboiized oil, 

 or with a solution of one part of mercuric chloride in one thousand 

 parts water. 



Granulating wounds may be irrigated with the mercuric chloride solu- 

 tion and if the granulations become inflamed (soft, flabby, exuberant, 

 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 horse in an ordinary stable would seem to forbid a 

 lengthy description in a book of this kind. 



