OPERATIONS—TRACHEOTOMY. 443 
eyes thereby are enabled to direct their movements. The probability 
of mistakes is thus lessened, and no man, with a knife in his hand and 
bleeding flesh under his eyes, has a right to expose himself to the pos- 
sibility of an error which, of course, is not to be erased or atoned for. 
Should a horse, when under the knife, struggle, do not attempt to 
contend with the animal. Immediately leave hold of your instruments, 
and withdraw your person out of danger. Allow your knife, ete. to 
remain; it will seldom be displaced, or, if cast out of the wound, can 
be easily reintroduced; whereas, did you endeavor to snatch away or 
to retain your hold, the most lamentable consequences might be the 
result. 
Another caution, and this part of the writer’s office is concluded. 
When you operate upon a leg, have that limb uppermost, unless your 
incision is made upon the inner side. Have the foot placed upon a 
pillow or sack stuffed with straw, and a strong webbing put around the 
hoof. The webbing give to a man who is to pull at it. The dragging 
sensation renders the horse inclined to retract the member; therefore 
place yourself in front of the limb, or on the same side as the man who 
holds the webbing. The fore leg, when advanced, cannot he readily 
employed as a weapon of offense, and the hind limb is always, when 
used in defense, projected backward. 
OPERATIONG—TRACHEOTOMY. 
This operation is, perhaps, the most humane recourse of veterinary 
surgery. Neurotomy may save the horse from greater and longer suf- 
fering; but tracheotomy is performed, unlike the former operation, 
upon an animal in an unconscious state. Difficult respiration, either 
from tumor pressing upon the larynx, infiltration upon the lining mem- 
brane of the larynx, or choking from various causes, produces imperfect 
