104 ANTISEPTIC TREATMENT OF WOUNDS. 
used later as a. cover for the amputation stump. If possible 
we must try to make the cuts so that the vertebral column of 
the tail is severed through a symphysis. 
The only cut vessel I tie is the middle tail artery, by means 
of sublimate silk; the side tail arteries are secured by uniting 
the above mentioned flaps with sutures. 
After the surface of the wound has been well rinsed with 
sublimate water, I sew up both flaps with sublimate silk, mak- 
ing the sutures as closely together as possible. 
An after treatment is hardly necessary, as healing takes place 
promptly. The sutures, also, I hardly ever have to remove. 
Exactly as described above I proceed in dogs, as in the 
latter, on account of their licking the tail and hitting it against 
the cage, more haemorrhage, even necrosis of the end of the 
tail, takes place. In rare cases I noticed in dogs, that after 
simply chopping off and cauterizing the tail, a connective 
tissue proliferation formed on the amputation stump, which 
reached the size of a child’s fist. Whether this was a mycofi- 
broma I leave undecided, as I did not make a very thorough 
examination, as at the time when I noticed these things the 
term mycofibroma was unknown. 
CASTRATION OF HORSES IN CITY PRACTICE. 
[In this country. a great majority of the horses are cas- 
trated as colts before they are offered for sale on the city marts, 
and therefore the city practitioner does not, proportionately, 
perform as many of these operations as the country veterin- 
arian. But when we seek information from this source or 
from the non-professional oophorectomist, we do not hear of 
methods that would inspire confidence or that we would be’ 
justified in adopting in city practice in view of the present 
knowledge of septic processes in wounds. In fact we learn 
that the operation is usually performed without regard for the 
dangers of wound infection and its consequences, ordinary 
cleanliness of the instruments and the meager use of some an- 
tiseptic liquid being the only precaution used to prevent sep- 
tic sequelae. When called to task for this condition of affairs, 
