410 PRINCIPLES or VETERINARY SURGERY 



grave disease. It is rare to see it terminate in recovery, 

 and in that event it is perhaps permissible to surmise that 

 the case was one of pseudo-gaseous gangrene caused by a 

 bacillus other than the vibrion septic of Pasteur. Violet 

 has seen a horse recover, and Ehrhardt had made a similar 

 observation in the cow. Recovery is certainly more rare 

 in the bovine species, as their feeble receptivity cannot be 

 doubted. Swine nearly always die, while in the dog, on the 

 contrary, the lesion remains local and recovery is the rule. 



TREATMENT. — Prevention here, as in all surgical 

 complications, is the important role. The surgeon should 

 employ only sterilized instruments. Wounds soiled with 

 earth, dung or excrements of whatever nature should be 

 thoroughly disinfected. The researches of Besson have 

 shown that the disease will not develop when only the 

 spores of the vibrion septic are brought into contact with 

 the wound. The presence of accessory microbian colonies 

 seems indispensable to the evolution of the disease. If the 

 methodical disinfection of the surface of the wound rids it 

 of the accessory parasites, the wound, no matter how badly 

 infected with the spores of the vibrion, will not cause the 

 gangrenous process. Anfractuous wounds covered with 

 blood clots should receive particular attention. Setons 

 must be banished, or else their tracts must be perfectly ir- 

 rigated. The accidents of parturition should never be neg- 

 lected, especially when the labor was attended by incom- 

 petent hands and infectious matter from the earth or ex- 

 crements may have been carried into the vaginal canal. The 

 disinfection of the generative tract with a solution of mer- 

 curic chloride i to 4000 is generally sufficient in the cow. 



When the disease has once stai'ted, prompt and ener- 

 getic intervention is necessary. The understanding of the 

 gravity of the diseases should not discourage the surgeon. 

 Open the gangrenous tissues with multiple incisions. Em- 



