174 VETERINARY SURGICAL THERAPEUTICS. 
tion of a few recent facts, all were falsely named, or they do not possess 
the stamp of exactitude demanded in scientific researches. No doubt, 
however, erysipelas exists in animals. It is inoculable by subjects of 
our domestic species; Fehleisen has studied it experimentally on 
swine and on rabbits; Mdller, Hoffman, and Lucet have seen it on the 
horse ; Rychner and Lucet on cattle; Frohner on dogs (4 cases only 
out of about 70,000 patients).’ We ourselves have seen it several 
times on horses and in dogs. The principal characteristics of cutane- 
ous erysipelas, since they are concealed by the hair, and, in the case 
of the horse, by the pigment of the skin, are much less evident than in 
man. That is why, in veterinary practice, it has been mistaken to this 
day with phlegmon, lymphangitis or the septic processes. In general, 
it seems less serious in animals than in man; fatal cases, however, 
have been noted in the case of dogs and solipeds. Upon the horse of 
Lucet, erysipelas acted like septicaemia and killed it in forty-eight 
hours. 
The prophylaxis of erysipelas from operations is that of all infec- 
tious accidents which may complicate wounds made by the surgeon, 
Operate quickly, take all antiseptic precautions, protect the wound 
against post-operatory infection. ‘Those are the means. But it is not 
so easy to prevent them with old accidental wounds, infected and sup- 
purating. Although these can be cleansed, even their dressings re- 
newed without tearing the granulations when they are enlarged or 
treated with the bistoury, new roads of entrance are necessarily opened 
to the micro-organisms. The chances of infection will be reduced to 
the minimum by previously washing the granulating surfaces and ex- 
cising them with the red-hot cautery. 
When the erysipelas is developed, the treatment must be local and 
internal. If it is limited to the peritraumatic zone, tepid carbolic or 
corrosive sublimate solutions, used as lotions, irrigations, baths or 
nebulizations, according to the case, then followed by applications of 
boricated or cocained vaseline, are almost always sufficient to prevent 
its extension—often they have a beneficial action on the general con- 
dition ; and soon the temperature lowers. The same treatment should 
be carried out if there are phyctenes or lymphangitis. With erysipe- 
latous wounds of the extremities, combined with lymphangitis and 
diffuse swelling of the extremities, long antiseptic baths (solution of cor- 
rosive sublimate, 1 in 1,000, or of carbolic acid 2 %, are very advan- 
tageous. 
Pihlegmonous erysipelas must be treated more actively. When a 
severe cedematous tumefaction announces the inflammation of the sub- 
‘cutaneous connective tissue, one must make, over the whole involved 
1 Frohner, Berlin, Thierarzt] Wochurschr, 1894, p. 368. 
