104 CANINE AND FELINE SURGERY. 



again taken and drawn tight. Continuing in this way the 

 spleen is traversed. A reef knot is then tied and the ends 

 cut short. The occluded end of the spleen is then cut through 

 close to the line of the ligature." 



Interrupted, instead of continuous, interlaced ligatures are 

 sometimes used. 



Following out his method of continuous ligature, Jordan had 

 twenty-one successes out of twenty-two cases, the animals being 

 Indian pariah dogs varying in ages from a month upwards. In 

 nineteen of them the lower half of the spleen was excised with- 

 out a single fatality or noticeable disturbance afterwards ; in 

 the remaining three, in which the upper half was excised, all 

 the animals showed great constitutional disturbance, and one 

 death occurred from shock. This authority concludes that it 

 is the removal of the upper half of the spleen which is full of 

 danger on account of the risk of shock and after haemorrhage, 

 and that it is much more difficult to operate upon than the 

 lower half. 



Removal of Tumours from the Abdominal Organs. — Diag- 

 nosis of tumours of the abdominal organs can usually be made 

 with certainty in thin emaciated patients, but in fat animals it 

 is often a matter of difficulty. The liver and spleen, and the 

 uterus in the case of the bitch, are the organs most commonly 

 affected. 



Tumours of the liver are usually very vascular, and their 

 removal is accompanied by hsmorrhage.^ If of any size and 

 without definite pedicle, the clam and a fine sharp iron or 

 heated knife used very carefully form the best instruments for 

 their removal ; the results are not satisfactory if the tumour is 

 at all imbedded in the liver structure. With tumours of the 

 spleen and uterus, as a rule, it is the wisest plan to excise the 

 whole of these organs if their structures are at all deeply 

 involved. These operations are described later. 



In all cases the principles of operation are the same. Rigid 



1 "Journal of Comparative Pathology and Therapeutics," Vol. XI., p. 231. 



