146 



ELEMENTAEY OPERATIONS. 



Fig. 179.— Bandage for Longitudinal Wounds. 



surgeon's plasters. They are better adapted for use, witli the 

 smaller, than with the larger animals, answering all the require- 

 ments with the former class. They are composed of various in- 

 ingredients, differently combined, such as black pitch, with resin, 

 Venice turpentine, etc., and oils, to improve their flexibility, and 

 aid their curative quahties. 



Venice turpentine, alone, is sometimes spread over the bandages, 

 also a mixture of tar and Burgundy pitch. Pitch, alone, when 

 melted and mixed vnth cut oaium or tow, forms a good adhesive 

 mixture. The ordinary adhesive, or diaohyton, or lead plaster, 

 used in human medicine, is of great value in the surgery of small 

 animals, and we have used it with great satisfaction vnth both 

 large and small patients, applying it in long strips, rolling them 

 around the aifected region in two or three thicknesses. CoUodion 

 has also been highly recommended. Either alone, or appUed with 

 thin Unen, or what is better, with wadding, it forms over the sur- 

 face of a wound, not only an adhesive plaster, but also a protec- 

 tive dressing. Plasters are, in some cases, used alone as means of 

 reunion, and in the treatment of fractures, they form a powerful 

 adjunct in controlling the displacements of fragments of bone. 

 They are, however, also frequently used to reinforce other means 

 of reunion, and especially deep sutures. 



D. SUTUBES. 



In all the category of surgical detail, there is nothing so effec- 

 tive, or indeed indispensable, as the suture, properly appHed, for 



