108 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
gerous,” especially the parotid region, one should rather prefer to the 
cautery or the trocar the following modus operandi: with the point of a 
straight bistoury, a simple cutaneous puncture is made in the centre of 
the phlegmonous tumor, a grooved director is then thrust, by its dull 
extremity, into the tissues until it has reached the centre of the cavity 3; 
by moving the director up and down, the tract it has made is enlarged. 
Then draw it out and replace it with scissors having dull points. Then 
when the director is removed, with their blades open and separated, 
lacerate the tissues without danger of injuring important organs, and, 
at the same time, leave a wide opening for the escape of the pus. A 
counter-opening is made in thesame manner. ‘This technique is superior 
to all others. 
After the abscess is opened, and before the drain is placed, the parts 
should be washed with an antiseptic solution—preferably carbolic acid 
(3-5 %), corrosive sublimate (1 in 1000), cresyl (3-5 4%), or tincture of 
iodine. During the days following, until the cavity has all granulated, 
two or three similar injections should be made through the drain tube. 
Of course those should be inade in various quantities, according to the 
fetid odor of the pus and the seat of the abscess, which might suggest 
the possibility of infectious complications. When the discharge has 
a tendency to dry, the drainage tube should be taken off. Atomizations 
of iodoform ether, used by some practitioners, are not any more ad- 
vantageous than simple antiseptic injections. 
When the suppuration lasts a longer time than abscesses ordinarily 
require to be filled, the wound becomes fistulous, and various secondary 
lesions may exist. Sometimes it is because-of a foreign body that 
must be extracted, or of an undermining where the walls have to be 
modified, or it is on ‘account of a necrotic lesion which, if it will not 
yield to strong antiseptic solutions, must require another operation. 
Septic or gangrenous phlegmons should be opened at once and treated. 
with strong disinfecting solutions. If there are portions of necrosed 
tissues, they should be cut away. Continuous irrigation may also be. 
used with advantage. 
After the pyogenic membrane has been cleaned, a slight pressure to. 
bring the walls of the sac more or less closely together, will accelerate 
the cicatrization. Some authors, considering the lining membrane of a 
warm abscess like the surfaces of a fresh wound, suggested bringing the 
walls close together, after the careful and complete washing of the 
cavity, in order to try to obtain union by first intention. This practice 
generally failed, although it was of advantage in reducing the dimen- 
sions of the cavity and in shortening the duration of the cicatrizations. 
With antisepsis, the adhesive reunion of the walls of the abscess has. 
been attempted, after the walls have been cleaned with the curette and. 
disinfected with a strong carbolic solution, The results obtained, how- 
