KNEE, FETLOCK, ANKIvE, AND FOOT. 223 



bandages loosely applied. Set a tub or barrel filled with cold water 

 above the patient and by the use of a small rubber hose of sufficient 

 length make a syphon which will carry the water from the bottom of 

 the tub to the leg at the top of the bandages. The stream of water 

 should be quite small, and it is to be continued until the inflammation 

 has entirely subsided or until the presence of pus can be detected in the 

 tumor. When suppuration has commenced the process should be aided 

 by the use of warm baths and poultices of linseed meal or boiled turnips. 

 If the tumor is of rapid growth, accompanied by intense pain, relief is 

 secured and sloughing largely limited by a free incision of the parts. 

 The incision should be vertical and deep into the tumor, care being taken 

 not to entirely divide the coronary band. If the tumor is large more 

 than one incision may be necessary. 



The foot should now be placed in a warm bath for half an hour or 

 longer and then poulticed. The bleeding produced by the cutting and 

 encouraged by the warm bath is generally very copious and soon gives 

 relief to the overtension of the parts. 



In other cases it will be found that suppuration is well under way, so 

 that the center of the tumor is soft when the patient is first presented 

 for treatment. It is always good surgery to relieve pus whenever its 

 presence can be detected; hence in these cases a free incision must 

 be made into the softened parts, the pus let out and the foot 

 poulticed. 



By surgical interference the tumor is now converted into an open sore 

 or ulcer, which, after it has been well cleaned by warm baths and poul- 

 tices applied for two or three days, needs to be protected by proper dress- 

 ings. The best of all protective dressings is made of small balls of 

 pledgets of oakum, carefully packed into the wound and held in place 

 by a roller bandage four yards long, from three to four inches wide, 

 made of common bedticking and skillfully applied. The remedies which 

 may be used to stimulate the healing process are many, and as a rule 

 they are applied in the form of solution or tinctures. 



The solution of bichloride of mercury one part, water five hundred 

 parts, with a few drops of muriatic acid or a few grains of muriate of 

 ammonia added to cause the mercury to dissolve. The balls of oakum 

 are wet with this solution before they are applied to the wound. 



Among other remedies which may be used, and perhaps with equally 

 as good results, will be noted the sulphate of copper, iron, and zinc, five 

 grains of either to the ounce of water; chloride of zinc, five grains to the 



