DISEASES OF THE WITHEES. 779 



watched, and its progress kept under control by mild caustic ap- 

 plications, or by pressure, to prevent an uneven and too rapid 

 cicatrization. 



During the treatment the animal must be kept quiet, and even 

 in some cases it will be prudent to hobble his fore legs in order to 

 limit his movements and prevent the filtration of the pus under 

 the shoulder. He is to be kept on light and nutritive diet, to 

 compensate for the losses resulting from the abundant suppura- 

 tion, and when the disease has disappeared, and there is only a 

 superficial wound remaining, and no more fear of returning com- 

 plications or relapses, the animal can be returned to his labors, 

 but must make his adieus to the bulky collai- which has weighed 

 so heavily on his neck, and substitute for it the equally efficient 

 and far more sightly Dutch coUar, which has never yet in any way 

 contributed to bring upon its wearer the calamity of diseased 

 withers. 



DISEASES OP THE POLL. 



This region of the neck is the seat of lesions, frequently occur- 

 ring, and of varying nature. They include excoriations, oedema- 

 tous swellings, cores, cysts, bloody tumors, abscesses, bruises, 

 wounds, etc., any of which may become complicated, and termi- 

 nate in poll evil, or the necrosis of one of the fibrous, elastic, or 

 bony elements which enter into the composition of that region. 



In considering the anatomical structure of the portion of the 

 neck in question we find on the top a mass of hair, separated from 

 that of the superior border of the neck by a surface which has 

 become caUous by the constant frictions of the head-strap of the 

 halter or of the bridle; the skin (Fig. 563), thick on the median 

 line, thinner on the sides, but always loosely connected vdth the 

 subjacent tissues; a thick layer of connective tissue, more or less 

 infiltrated vrith fat, and lardaceous in low-bred horses ; the cord of 

 the ligamentum nuchse, which is attached to the occipital bone, 

 and more or less covered by the cervico-auricularis muscles ; on 

 each side, and on the same level, the terminal insertion of the 

 splenius muscles, and forming an elevation which is -covered by 

 the aponeurosis common to that muscle and the smaU complexus, 

 which itself makes an apparatus of retention of great resistance 

 to the organs of the region; then another layer, composed of the 

 large tendon of the great complexus, the small oblique muscle of 



