330 PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 



are combated by friction, stimulants of hot wine, light alcohol 

 and coffee. 



TRAUMATIC HAEMORRHAGE AND ANAEMIA. 



Traumatic hasmorrhage may be defined as an escape of 

 blood, beyond ordinary limits, from an accidental or surgical 

 wound. Haemorrhage may be either primary or secondary: 

 — it is primary when occurring immediately after a trau- 

 ma, and secondary when some time elapses between the 

 infliction of the wound and the occurrence of the haemor- 

 rhage. In contused wounds it is often secondary as the blood 

 vessels are bruised and their lumina closed by the coagula, 

 which circumstance temporarily arrests the flow of blood, but 

 when animals are left to themselves they may bite the wound 

 or rub it against neighboring objects and thus provoke a sec- 

 ondary haemorrhage by breaking up and detaching the clots. 



Haemorrhage may be especially abundant in certain sub- 

 jects. Donkeys and mules are normally haemophilic, as a 

 trifling wound, the excision of proud flesh or the cutting of 

 a shallow fistula are often sufficient, in these animals, to 

 provoke hjemorrhages that show no tendency to arrest 

 spontaneously, as in the other species. Whether the 

 haemorrhage diathesis is a vascular defect, a disturbance 

 of the vaso-motor nerves or a chemical modification of the 

 blood is difficult to determine. It may be either of these 

 factors or an associated action of all. 



The amount of haemorrhage equally depends upon the 

 richness of the blood supply of the injured region. It is 

 always abundant in the tongue, foot, anus, walls of abscess, 

 fistuhe, etc. 



The nature of the trauma, the character of the wounded 

 vessels and the constitution of the tissues in which the 

 wound occurs, are so many, more or less, important factors 

 in the production of htemorrhage. The state of the blood 



