66 ^ WOUND TREATMENT 



while on the other hand -he who is bent upon constant 

 meddlesome interference with the germination, growth, 

 and maturing of the reparative elements required to re- 

 store the lost elements, invites complications, retards 

 the normal activity of tissue construction, and usually 

 leaves indelible blemishes as evidence of his harmful 

 practices. 



The system of wound treatment in general use in the 

 veterinary profession, to be perfectly frank, does not 

 entitle us to much credit. Our therapy in this connec- 

 tion is severely lacking in the refinement that enables 

 the surgeon of human beings to make and manage suc- 

 cessfully enormously large wounds. The reader may 

 here insist that he has obtained good results from his 

 wound treatment. But is this really the fact? Is it not 

 more nearly the truth that our successfully treated 

 wounds are, after all, trivial wounds, and that our really 

 serious wounds, surgical or accidental, are too often 

 fatal, or that they permanently disfigure or perma- 

 nently disable our animal patients? And is it not 

 stiU a painful fact that the whole veterinary profes- 

 sion continues to exhibit a real fear of extensive sur- 

 gical wounds because of their bad behavior? And is it 

 not still the truth that many of us fear to invade the 

 splanchnic cavities and synovials, believing that acci- 

 dental wounds of these cavities are fatal and surgical 

 wounds very hazardous? Such an impression should 

 Ho longer prevail among us, at least not to the same 

 extent as in years gone by. With our knowledge of 

 regeneration on the one hand, and of the pathology of 

 wound complications on the other, vre should approach 

 almost any wound with more confidence thah formerly ; 

 and then by planning various schemes to remove every 

 harmful element, inherent and ulterior, a very remark- 

 able success may be achieved in the treatment of even 



