270 STRANGLES. 
morning, noon, and night, until soreness is produced. It will, at first, 
seem cool, and be grateful to the part. After every application, have 
ready three pieces of flannel—no 
house-cloth, no open and thin stuff, 
which some economical housewives 
presume to think is good enough 
for the stable, but soft, thick, and 
warm, new flannel, such as any feel- 
ing person would bind around a 
sore and inflamed part. Put these 
over the embrocation, and bind all 
on with a flannel eight-tailed band- 
A HORSE WITH STRANQLES WEARING AN EIGHT- 
TAILED BANDAGE: age. An eight-tailed bandage is 
simply a long piece of flannel having 
three slits at either end. Its use, and the manner of applying it, is 
shown in the above illustration. 
When the tumor points, the surgeon takes with him two assistants 
into the box where the horse is confined. One proceeds to apply the 
twitch; this twitch is an instrument of torture—it is a strong stick, 
having a short loop of cord at one end. The sensitive upper lip of the 
horse is grasped by the assistant’s left hand, which has previously been 
thrust through the loop of the twitch. The loop is next slid over the 
left hand, and with the right hand placed upon the lip, while the fellow- 
assistant, by twisting the stick round and round, tightens, and thus pinches 
into a ball this most sensitive lump of imprisoned flesh ; for in the upper 
lip of the horse resides the sense of touch—anatomy shows us it is more 
largely supplied with nerves than any other part in the body. 
The attendant, who had first put on the twitch, gives the stick to his 
companion, and lifts up one of the animal’s legs. The horse, with its 
attention engrossed by the agony of its lip, is rendered disinclined to 
motion, and is comparatively powerless while standing on three legs. 
The surgeon then takes an abscess knife, not a lancet, which is a coarse 
and clumsy instrument—the lancet simply punctures, whereas in an 
abscess more is desirable. A free opening is always wished for; and 
where living flesh is to be operated upon, it is, for very many reasons, 
preferable to do all the cutting at once. The knife is held lightly in the 
hand, with the thumb resting on the back of the blade. The horse, 
when it feels the incision, is apt, spite of the twitch, to drag suddenly 
backward. Thus it pulls against the back of the knife, and no injury 
can occur; whereas, with a double-edged lancet, an ugly and a danger- 
ous wound has, by the motion of the animal, been inflicted. The thumb, 
in this situation, also serves another purpose. It allows only so much 
