CAUDAL MYOTOMY. 



299 



The patient must be kept, as much as possible, in the standing 

 position, with a twitch on his nose, and his hind legs hobbled, or 

 secured with the hippo-lasso ; or if he is of a very excitable and 

 restless disposition, the stocks should be brought into requisition. 

 The decubital position is, in our opinion, unnecessary, and un- 

 doubtedly a very inconvenient one for the surgeon, and not at aU 

 contributive to the performance of a neat operation. We have 

 often used cocaine when pricking horses, and it has in many in- 

 stances produced all the excellent effects of general anesthesia; 

 and we prefer it, therefore, to the inhalations of chloroform which 

 some recommend. 



1st. Operation by Transverse Incisions. — The instruments 

 required in this mode are a bistouri a serpette, an instrument re- 

 sembling that known as bistouri cache of our obstetric cases; 



Fig. 315. — Bistoury for Caudal Myotomy. 



a sharp convex bistoury, and a bull-dog forceps, or a pointed 

 tenaculum. The animal being secured in position, an assistant, 

 placed on one side of the croup of the patient and facing 

 the operator, raises the taU perpendicularly and weU. on the 

 middle of the back of the patient, in order to render the mus- 

 cles tense and cause them to project well under the fine, soft 

 skin which covers that region. The operator, directly facing 

 the posterior parts of the animal, then firmly grasps the tail with 

 his left hand and steadies it, while holding the blade of the 

 bistouri a serpette between the right thumb and index finger, close 

 to its sharp part, and plunges the instrument through the skin 

 and the entire thickness of the muscle, beginning on its inside 

 border, or sUghtly on one side of the median line, and carrying 



Pig. 315a.— How to Hold the Bistoury and Make the Incision. 



