OPERATIONS. 435 
certain cases met with in human surgery, nevertheless would be well abol- 
ished from veterinary practice, because of its indiscriminate abuse. Firing 
is employed for every and for no reason. Now recourse is had to it because 
the joints are weak. Then it is adopted because a gentleman is fond of 
seeing his horses scored. Next, it is used to gain time, and thus proloug 
the treatment. Generally it is brought forward because the practitioner 
does not know what else to do. Lastly, it is esteemed the crowning 
measure of routine practice. 
The author, however, has never been necessitated to resort to so vio- 
lent an agent. It is a most unseemly ornament in unprofessional hands ; 
in this book, which is intended for the general public, the use of the 
firing-iron is altogether omitted. 
The knife, especially to the animal, is the most humane of remedies. 
It often affords instant or immediate relief. The animal seems to suffer 
more from the restraint imposed than from the wounds inflicted. The 
chief sensation, with all forms of life, resides in the skin; so that the 
integument be quickly and effectually divided, the soft parts underneath 
have but little feeling. The interference with these last rather produces 
faintness or sickness than acute suffering; the knowledge of which fact 
will embolden many a humane person, though the writer trusts it will 
not be credited by all who are of an opposite character, since boldness, 
unrestrained by humanity, only renders the individual a savage without 
the savage’s excuse. 
Such operations as embriotomy, castration, and lithotomy are inten- 
tionally omitted, from a conviction that no gentleman would undertake 
them; and because, in every instance, they had better be intrusted to a 
regular veterinary surgeon. 
Before undertaking any operation, always reflect on what you are 
about to do, and make up your mind how you design to do it. Irreso- 
lution causes more suffering than the most perverted determination can 
inflict. It is always well (however much in practice the operator may 
consider himself) to first perform the intended operation upon the dead 
subject. This is a custom which the writer invariably adopted; and 
frequently it has supplied his memory with a refresher which, in the 
hurry of practice, was found a most timely warning. 
Never use small knives. Such things look pretty. The sight of a 
large blade may appear very ugly; but it does at one movement that 
work which an instrument of notching smallness would not in twenty 
hacks accomplish. Understand thoroughly that which you are about to 
perform, and always choose the tool likely to get through the business 
quickly. Periosteotomy cases were formerly sold by veterinary instru- 
ment makers which contained a knife of moderate doll’s dimension. The 
