INTKODUCTION. 



seat ; simple if performed by a single manipiilation, complicated 

 •when requiring several distinct or separate stages for their exe- 

 cution. 



{d) Operations are called regular or determinate when per- 

 formed according to rules in relation to the disposition of the 

 parts, and, in general, upon sound structures; and they become 

 irregular or casual when the manipulations are extemporized to 

 meet the emergencies of the case, the necessity of the situation 

 and the unanticipated complications which may arise while opera- 

 ting, as particularly in cases of the removal of tumors. 



(e) They have also received various designations indicative of 

 the time chosen by the surgeon for their performance ; or made 

 imperative by the circumstances of the case ; or according to the 

 object specifically in view : thus they are urgent or of necessity 

 when a fatal event would be the alternative of delay, and imme- 

 diate treatment becomes imperative, as the condition of the 

 patient's survival, as in operation for the reduction of strangu- 

 lated hernia, or that of tracheotomy in a case of threatening suf- 

 focation; and in cases beyond hope of complete recovery, they may 

 become necessary, indispensable, useful or palliative, according 

 to the degree in which they may be made available as a means of 

 relief, and may tend to the temporary respite of the sufferer, and 

 in some degree improve his value by measurably enhancing his 

 ability to contiuue to labor with some degree of comfort before 

 he is overtaken by a final and total disability. 



There is another class of operations which justly deserves to 

 be totally discountenanced and ignored, and in fact are fit objects 

 for penal prohibition. They are known as operations of fantasy 

 or fashion. They are without real utihty; are abortive attempts 

 to improve upon the symmetry of nature ; are devised simply to 

 satisfy a mere whim of affectation; are in wretchedly poor taste; 

 and probably subject their victims to a more aggravated and pro- 

 tracted species of torture than any other form of wound known to 

 veterinary surgery. There are sometimes conditions, however, ia 

 which they may lose their aUeged aesthetic pretext and their ar- 

 tistic character, and the object of their performance may be 

 regarded as properly within the legitimate and beneficial sphere 

 of professional work. 



The settlement of the point of the time, in connection with 

 any piece of surgical work, is not always one of mere secondary 



