INTRODUCTION IV 



no avenue must be left unexplored in the examination of a 

 proposed surgical patient. The problems presented are often 

 so puzzling, their presentation so deceptive and the circum- 

 stances surrounding their inception so misleading that the 

 incautious diagnostician soon becomes fairly swamped in 

 the consequences of his errors. He fires the spavined horse 

 lame from a penetrant nail still hidden in the lateral lacuna 

 of the frog; he performs neurotomy on the navicular case 

 without having discovered the existence of a suppurating 

 corn; he evacuates the antrum without sufficient examination 

 of the teeth to exclude incipient decay of a molar; he leaves 

 a foreign body in the depths of a punctured wound ; he treats 

 colic for three days only to discover when too late that the 

 cause is a strangulated hernia ; he hastily castrates an animal 

 and learns to his dismay, by the appearance of the prolapsing 

 intestines, that an inguinal hernia has been overlooked; in 

 short, by his constant display of incaution he brings upon 

 himself the everlasting censure of a disgusted clientele. 



The wisdom of submitting the foot to a thorough exam- 

 ination before deciding upon the location of a lameness, 

 always held out so conspicuously in every instruction on vet- 

 erinary surgical diagnosis, is unimpeachable. But why stop 

 with lameness? This good sound advice to look elsewhere 

 applies to all categories of diseases, and it is adopted as an 

 absolute law by the experienced practitioner. 



And moreover, the examination must not end with the 

 disease. The patient must be submitted to critical attention 

 as regards age, sex, general health, pregnancy, conformation, 

 deformities, diseases of the skeleton, organic diseases, tem- 

 perament, occupation, habitat, et cetera. If these do not 

 often alter the decision to operate they do very frequently 

 call for an alteration of the modus operandi, and must there- 

 fore never be slighted in the pre-operative cogitation. 



(b) Pre-operative Preparation.— Before performing an 

 operation certain preparatory steps must be executed, and 

 while their significance is decidedly varied in accordance 

 with the character and importance of the proposed procedure 

 there is always something to do in this connection. 



These steps include (i) preparation of the patient, (2) as- 

 sembling the equipment and sterilization of the instruments 

 and dressings, and (3) preparation of the surgical field. 



(i)- Preparation of the Patient.— This step includes 

 chiefly dieting, purging, and starving in order to forestall the 

 complications which emanate from casting, anaesthetizing 

 and operating upon animals whose abdomens are filled. In 



