280 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



icnce has shown, time after time, that operations consisting 

 of the simplest incisions, performed in strict obedience to 

 all of the standard regulations, will yield pus in about/ 

 twenty-five per cent of the cases. Often it amounts to noth- 

 ing more than a trivial stitch suppuration, but there it is, 

 nevertheless. If four interrupted sutures are carefully in- 

 serted into the skin of the horse at different points of the 

 body under the strictest aseptic precautions, it is quite cer- 

 tain that at least one of them will be found purulent on 

 the fourth day. The infection may be limited to one point 

 of entrance of the needle, it may be found at both, or 

 finally in other cases the entire traumatic cavity may be 

 purulent. These experiments prove the existence of pyo- 

 genic micro-organisms in the skin, that are capable of caus- 

 ing a reaction even in a simple incised wound where there 

 are no mutilated elements or exudates to create a favorable 

 medium for their growth. The behavior of these same 

 micro-organisms in an accidental wound where the injured 

 elements, blood and serum furnish abundant nutrition, can 

 be imagined. 



Lastly, the constant state of motion to which the 

 wounds of animals are constantly subjected favors the 

 spreading of infections which would have remained local 

 in a perfectly immobilized trauma. Thus a trivial stitch 

 suppuration that might subside and desiccate in a quiet 

 wound, will spread into the surroundings from the move- 

 ments of the parts. It is not a mere speculation to assert 

 that a very trivial infection may be transformed into a very 

 grave and even fatal disease from no other cause than the 

 motion to which the wound is constantly subjected. 



The best results are obtained in veterinary operations, 

 as in human surgery, by the sterilization of everything more 

 or less intimately connected with the procedure; but as it is 

 stated above, this is not always pi-actical. 



