General Surgery 23 



rule, there is little hemorrhage. In the absence of foreign bodies 

 puncture wounds heal kindly. 



Contused wounds are caused by blunt bodies and are character- 

 ized by more or less mangling of the subcutaneous tissues and irreg- 

 ular laceration of the skin. They are very liable to be infected. 



Bite wounds are usually caused by animals of the same species, 

 and constitute one of the commonest forms of injury the practitioner 

 is called upon to treat. They are often multiple and usually the 

 flesh is torn and lacerated. The bites of vicious dogs or wild ani- 

 mals are sometimes sufficient to produce eventration and dislocation 

 of the eyeball. Bite wounds are commonly followed by suppurative 

 processes, the pus burrowing beneath the skin and forming ab- 

 scesses. The possibility of the virus of rabies having been intro- 

 duced into the system must always be considered, and steps be taken 

 accordingly. 



Gun-shot wounds occur principally in hunting dogs. Ordinary 

 shot, when not fired at long range, enters the tissues at isolated 

 points. Should it lodge in the skin it invariably sets up suppurative 

 foci, but when it passes through the dermis and lodges in the deeper 

 tissues it may become encapsulated without causing any trouble. 

 When discharged at close quarters it may cause mutilation of tissues. 

 In the case of missiles of greater caliber the possibility of remote 

 lesions must always be considered. Vessels and nerves may be 

 severed, bones fractured, and viscera punctured. Bullet wounds of 

 the abdominal organs are considered elsewhere. 



Poisoned wounds comprise those in which vegetable alkaloids, 

 minerals, ptomaines, snake poison, the sting of wasps and hornets 

 are deposited. They vary in their effect upon the organism accord- 

 ing to their toxicity, some producing violent local inflammatory 

 phenomena, gangrene, etc., others systemic intoxication. 



In general, it may be said that wounds in the dog heal well 

 when the animal is healthy, but the presence of chronic and infec- 

 tious diseases tends to hinder the process. That pyogenic bacteria 

 may be derived from the circulation has been shown experimentally 

 by Rinne, who injected sterilized putrid fluids, together with 

 staphylococci, into the peritoneal cavity and found that suppuration 

 of all open wounds followed, which otherwise healed kindly. Open 

 serous sacs also retard healing. 



The healing of wounds, whether surgical or adventitious, has 



