IIo VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
openings made by the bistoury. The condition for the continuance 
of the inflammatory tumor is removed, and the tumor then gradually 
‘diminishes and soon disappears. 
In numerous cases, it is necessary to enlarge the tract, from which the 
pus flows. This is done with a bistoury, guided by a director, to make 
a larger incision ; or by using a cautery heated to white heat, which is 
thrust into the tract. A tent ora rubber drain is introduced and secured 
in the wound when the enlargement of the incision has been made with 
the bistoury. The drain, which insures the flow of the pus and allows 
antiseptic or irritating injections, as the case may demand, into the 
wound, is always preferable to a tent introduced into the tract of the 
abscess. 
Many practitioners use the cautery. Itis not only dipped into the 
‘indurated mass or introduced into the wound made by the puncture to 
enlarge it, but it is also used to make a certain number of deep points, 
‘to stimulate the resorption of the newly formed tissue. Often a vesicat- 
ing preparation (blister, mercury ointment, or biodide of mercury oint- 
ment) is applied all over the surface of the tumor to complete the oper- 
ation and the action of the cauterization. The same means may be 
used when the exploring punctures have failed to reach the abscesses. 
When the cold abscess is in a region full of important organs (blood 
vessels, nerves, and synovial membranes), the bistoury and the cautery 
are not to be introduced deeply. The directions given in the chapter 
on warm abscesses must be followed for these. Puncture with the 
grooved director, after incision of the skin, is the best mode. 
Soft cold abscesses should be opened in their most dependent part, 
‘drained and irrigated afterwards with strong antiseptic solutions. 
During distemper, voluminous cold abscesses may be seen appearing 
in various regions; they rapidly become fluctuating and ordinarily con- 
tain a large quantity of pus. Their treatment does not differ from that 
‘of ordinary abscesses : puncture, enlargement of the wound or counter 
opening, drainage and frequent antiseptic injections. 
Local secondary purulent collections, including congestive abscesses, te 
quire the same care, besides attending to the treatment suggested by their 
various causes (necrosis, caries, phlebitis, inflammation of synovial 
membranes, wounds of the cesophagus, of the rumen or of the urethra). 
Multiple abscesses of the inferior regions of the extremities are some- 
‘times accompanied by swelling of the leg, which may end in elephantiac 
fibroma, when the rapid resolution of the phlegmasia is not obtained 
by antiseptic balneation. 
In cases of cold abscesses due to a diathesic condition (lymphatism, 
rheumatism or anemia) a general medication should be resorted to 
(good hygiene, strengthening food, arsenical and iodous preparations), 
The treatment of some dyscrasic abscesses (glanders) calls for no 
attention. Animals which suffer from these should be killed. 
