152 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
Independently of all surgical interference, contusions of the first and 
second degrees may exceptionally present, at certain times, well 
marked inflammatory phenomena and terminate in suppuration. The 
specific agents of the latter have reached the traumatic center, either 
through superficial excoriations that have denuded the papillar layer 
of the tegument, or by vascular channels, when the blood is accident~ 
ally infected. 
In contusions of the third degree, the lesions are often very serious. 
The muscular layers are crushed, the interstices of connective structure 
are extensively gorged with blood; the skin soon becomes mortified, 
the contusion is transformed into an open wound and exposed to all 
the dangers of contused wounds. Recent contusions are, in general, 
treated with antiphlogistics, especially with continued irrigation; but 
warm affusions or fomentations—warm baths for small animals, or, if 
possible, for large—are to be preferred. When enormous extravasa- 
tions exist in contused regions, puncture and antiseptic washes form a 
good treatment. If suppuration occurs, free opening and cleaning of 
the irregularities of the cavity with strong disinfecting solution (chloride 
of zinc 5-8) and drainage to assist the flow of the discharge, are the 
requirements. In contusions produced by large bodies which have 
moved with great force, often large vessels are thrombosed, nerves 
crushed, and bones fractured. One must know how to appreciate the 
gravity of such disorders in order to decide as to the fate of the 
patient. 
XI. 
PRIMITIVE TRAUMATIC EFFUSIONS OF LIQUID FATTY 
MATTERS. 
These, which are frequent in heavy draught horses, less so in cattle, 
and which are exceptional in small animals, occupy ordinarily the regions 
exposed to external violence and friction, and where the skin lies, with 
the intervention of a conjunctive layer, upon a resisting aponeurosis. 
They are most often found on the haunch, thigh, stifle, over the mass of 
the muscles of the elbow, sometimes the withers, external face of the 
shank, and the hock. Their mode of formation is the same in animals 
as in man: they are the consequence of pressure made obliquely upon 
the skin, and sufficiently great to lacerate the subcutaneous connective 
layer ; the adherences established between the skin and the aponeurosis 
are more or less completely destroyed ; a cavity, often large, is formed, 
in which serosity accumulates or an oily liquid when the torn connective. 
tissue is much infiltrated with fat. Pressure of the breeching strap, 
below the haunches, or on the external face of the thighs, kicks, and 
falls from slipping, are the principal occasional causes of the effusions. 
observed in horses, 
