52 FISTULA AND POLL-EVIL 
any form of effectual treatment. The affected 
area of ligament is too extensive to extirpate 
and drainage apertures cannot be made nor 
maintained to any advantage. In_ short, 
cervical fistula is an incurable, hopeless con- 
dition. 
Still another location is the bodies of the 
dorsal vertebre between the scapule. Here 
* the pus follows the spines downward and seats 
itself at an inaccessible place for drainage. 
The Atypical Form 
By atypical fistule we refer to those of 
strictly traumatic origin. They supervene 
saddle, harness and collar sores and cutaneous 
contusions of various kinds, especially those 
due to a hard, continuous pressure or deep 
_ pressure. Most of them begin as a pressure 
gangrene of a small zone of the skin, the sub- 
cutem and the underlying ligament. The mi- 
crobian flore of these lesions are the usual horde 
of staphylococci and bacilli that ordinarily m- 
fect wounds of horses. In one specimen taken 
from our clinic, Prof. Herzog isolated the 
Bacillus necrophorus in addition to the others. 
The ligament once attacked is slowly invaded 
farther and farther along its course and the 
underlying spines become implicated. That is. 
the disease once seated becomes progressive, 
