194 OPEEATIONS OK THE SKIN AND CELLULAR TISSUE. 



Care must be taken while operating in this region to avoid 

 wounding the spur vein, which can be done by raising the skin 

 well from it when the point of the instrument has reached its 

 course, by which movement the needle passes outside of the 

 vein and can be brought outside on the inferior border of the 

 thorax. The tape is then placed in the eye of either the needle 

 or the blade as already frequently described. Our own practice 

 is to secure the tape through the eye of the blade, and draw the 

 tape into position by removing the needle from below upward, 

 considering this plan to be both more convenient and less dan- 

 gerous. 



(e) At the Shoulder. — Setons are often applied in this region 

 against lameness of old standing ; at times only one, at others 

 two, or even more, according to the extent and location of the dis- 

 eased region. When applying more than one, they are commonly 

 placed parallel with each other. Many practitioners place them 

 crossing each other, meeting in the middle of their length, with 

 their point of meeting on a level with the center of the scapulo- 

 humeral joint. In placing them, the compound, or three-jointed 

 needle, somewhat flexible (already described), will be necessary, 

 as being capable of adapting itself as much as possible to the 

 convexity of the joint. Some care is required in the selection of 

 a proper place for the puncture, and the animal must be kept in 

 the standing position as much under restraint as possible. 



There is probably no special rule for the location and direction 

 in which setons should be appUed, the discretion of the operator, 

 in many cases, furnishing the only guide. This is well illustrated 

 in the application of the monstrous "seton a la Gaulet,''^ so called 

 from its inventor, and which consisted in surrounding the entire 

 scapular surface with one immense seton, begitming at the cervical 

 angle of the scapula, running along its anterior border to a point 

 below the shoulder, passing in front of the breast to the axilla, 

 through that region, horizontally back on a level with the elbow, 

 to retiu-n outward and then upward to the dorsal angle of the 

 scapula, where it ended. This form of exutory is no longer toler- 

 ated, the dangers attending it, from the severe and exhausting 

 drainage of the organism having brought it into discredit, with 

 the result of its dismissal from general practice. 



A seton at the shoulder requires special protection from the 

 animal, by means of the cradle or the side bars, its location 



