PRINCIPLES OF VETERINARY SURGERY 335 



the granulations then become covered with epidermic 

 patches, from peripheiy to center, which serve as the defi- 

 nite covering. Rather frequently the hyperplastic repara- 

 tive process continues, and the connective-vascular tissue be- 

 comes an abnormal, exuberant vegetation that results in the 

 formation of hypertrophic sclerosis. The totality of the pro- 

 cess is the formation of a cicatricial keloid — "a sort of sub- 

 acute fibroma of inflammatory origin." 



ETIOLOGY. — Among the domestic animals the horse 

 is a frequent svifTerer from keloids. In this species they re- 

 sult from the actual cautery, contusions, blows, vesicants, 

 and even simple irritants. They are encountered most fre- 

 quently where the skin is not firmly attached to the sub- 

 jacent tissues. The anterior face of the hock, the tendons 

 and the fetlock, the flexion surface of the pastern, and the 

 coronet are their locations by predilection. They frequently 

 originate from a prominent cicatrix, linear or in buttons, ac- 

 cording to the form of the lesion, which is generally con- 

 sidered to be a fibroma and which is extirpated or cauter- 

 ized. These manipulations arouse the dormant cellular ac- 

 tivity, and the insignificant lesion of the beginning becomes 

 a voluminous tumor that is extremely vascular and capable 

 of rendering the animal useless. Young weak subjects, 

 reared under bad hygienic conditions, are predisposed to the 

 lesion. 



Among the bovines these accidents are rare. Moreau has 

 observed some on the rump of a cow, that traced a long 

 cicatrix in the form of a scar, circumscribing the hip and 

 running along the entire extent of the left flank. They are 

 exceptional in the dog and small animals of the farm. Labat 

 refers to one in the ram. 



SYMPTOMS. — Mediate abnormal cicatrization may 

 give rise to projecting scars, sensitive scars and finally 

 keloids. The first two states are often the starting-point of 



