890 DADD’S VETERINARY MEDICIN£ AND SURGERY 
introducing it into human practice, and to the French veterinarians 
that of transplanting the same into veterinary practice. For- 
merly the actual cautery was the instrument employed for the 
removal of the parts obstructing reduction ; but in our own day 
this has been thrown aside for the scalpel, an instrument quite aa 
effective, while the simple act of cutting with a knife gives so 
touch less pain than cutting or dividing with the actual cautery. 
In general, it is considered necessary to cast the horse for the ope- 
ration; but Mr. Gregory, V. S., did not cast his patient, but 
merely put on a side-line, and had one leg held up and the tail 
kept on one side; and, most assuredly, the standing position of 
the patient is one which, in such an operation, offers no mean 
advantages to the operator, provided he can avail himself of it 
without any personal danger. A great preservation against re- 
fractoriuess in an operation of the kind, at the moment when any 
pain is felt, is a twitch, well put on, and well and timely turned. 
The horse secured, with his tail turned out of the way, an incision, 
forming a circle, is to be carried around the protruding mass, at 
sufficient distance from the constricted part of the neck of the 
protrusion to leave behind it such parts as are distended from 
tumefaction or infiltration, whose removal will render the retrac- 
tion of the gut an easy and natural effort. In making incision, 
it may be advisable to take up and tie with a silk ligature any 
vessel met with of size enough to issue a current of blood, though 
sometimes no such precaution is required. In the case mentioned 
Vy Mr. Gregory, not more than a quart of blood was lost. The 
‘ncision ought to be made of sufficient depth to penetrate cona- 
pletely through the substance of the mucous membrane, however 
morbidly thickened that may be, without, however, running a 
risk of wounding the muscular coat beneath it, the object being 
to dissect the former away and strip it off the latter, so as to lessen 
the bulk of the mass to that degree that return }ecomes a volun- 
tary and facile action of the animal himself. So soon, however 
us this denudation has been carried near to the inverted anus, 
care must be taken not to dissect or otherwise injure the sphincter 
of that part, lest we leave the horse with an imperfection in closing 
an outlet of so important a function. A soft or mash diet should, 
for a few weeks, succeed the operation, with abstinence from hay, 
which, from its fibrous, prickly nature, must be particularly offen- 
give to the denuded gut. Occasional emollient clysters are alse 
