SURGICAL OPERATIONS. 



By "William Dickson and William Herbert Lowe, D. V. S.- 

 [Eevised in 1904 by William Herbert Lowe.] 



Surgery is both a science and an art. The success of surgical 

 operations depends upon the judgment, skill, and dexterity, as well 

 as upon the knowledge, of the operator. The same fundamental 

 principles underlie and govern animal and human surgery, although 

 their applications have a wide range and are very different in many 

 essential particulars. We must not lose sight of the fact that hygiene 

 and sanitation are essential to the best results in veterinary as well 

 as in human surgery. 



Asepsis is an ideal condition which, although not always possible 

 in animal surgery, is highly important in connection with the mechan- 

 ical details of all surgical operations in proportion to the nature and 

 seriousness of the same. Aseptic surgery may be said to be such as 

 is preserved from contamination by poisonous materials, whether 

 such poisons be applied directly to it or be generated in it by the 

 action of germs that gain access to it and find within it the conditions 

 favorable to their growth. It should be borne in mind that there are 

 three ways that a wound may be kept aseptic ; by the protection it 

 receives from the first, at the hands of the surgeon, from the access 

 of septic agents; by the power of living tissue to resist and destroy 

 septic agents, and by application to the wound of substances which 

 destroy them. 



Local and general anesthesia should be resorted to in painful and 

 serious surgical operations, as operations upon all living creatures 

 should be humanely performed and all unnecessary pain and suffering 

 avoided. Anesthesia is necessary where absolute immobility of the 

 patient is essential, and where entire muscular relaxation is indispen- 

 sable. The anesthetic condition is also favorable for the reduction of 



displaced organs. 



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