General Surgery 25 



from a fountain syringe. Even in suppurating wounds antiseptics 

 may be dispensed with where good drainage is provided. Abscesses 

 must be opened and carefully inspected for presence of foreign 

 bodies and dependent drainage openings established. The edges 

 of fresh wounds should be adjusted with regard that no cavity be 

 left in the deeper parts in which serum and blood may collect. 

 Where this is not possible ample provision must be made for drain- 

 age, to prevent abscess formation. The part of a wound most diffi- 

 cult to treat is always the subcutis. Here the defensive power of the 

 organism is poor, and should there occur any intervening spaces 

 they form suitable pockets for the reception of blood and serum 

 which, for the first few hours, exude in considerable quantity from 

 the surrounding wounded capillaries and veinlets, and which, as 

 already stated, form putrescible material. Should there be the 

 slightest degree of infection present, the microorganisms, being re- 

 moved from contact with living tissue, are free to multiply beyond 

 the area of its phagocytic action, and thereby establish abundant 

 suppuration. It is very difficult to prevent the formation of spaces 

 in the subcutis, especially in fat animals. To ensure drainage the 

 most dependent extremity may be left gaping, but in some cases it 

 will be necessary to insert a strand of plain sterilized gauze, one end 

 being allowed to protrude slightly, and leave it in place three or 

 four days. This holds good, of course, where bandages can be ap- 

 plied or other means taken to prevent the animal from reaching the 

 parts with its teeth or feet. Where the entire surface of the wound 

 can be brought into apposition so that no cavity remains drainage 

 can be dispensed with, but all doubtful cases should be drained. The 

 edges of fresh wounds are best united with subcuticular sutures. 

 But wounds the edges of which indicate the development of cicatri- 

 zation, and from which an animal has once torn the sutures, are pre- 

 ferably to be permitted to fill up by granulation. It is remarkable what 

 large-sized wounds will fill up completely by granulation and leave 

 hardly a semblance of a scar particularly in animals with abundant 

 hair. 



Wide-open or gaping wounds very often do not permit of 

 approximation or if they do the tension is so great as to preclude any 

 possibility of sutures remaining in position. Such wounds are 

 treated by the "Qierry" process. This consists of making a longi- 

 tudinal incision on either side a short distance to the outside of and 



