322 Surgical Diseases and Surgery of the Dog 



uine surgical measure, more minute technic is required. It is 

 practically identical with that of amputation of the leg, but the 

 section is generally made at a joint so that it is in reality a dis- 

 articulation. The animal should be narcotized with morphine and 

 receive local injection of cocaine. The technic is as follows: The 

 hair being clipped or shaved off at the site of operation the latter 

 thoroughly cleansed, and the tourniquet applied above, the skin 

 and subjacent tissues are divided by circular incision at a line from a 

 half to one inch below the joint, and two opposite longitudinal in- 

 cisions extended up to the level of the joint. The soft tissues of 

 this area are next dissected from around th^ bone and the caudal 

 vessels ligated. The joint is then severed by division of the liga- 

 ments. The resulting flap should be secured with a single suture 

 only, in order that drainage may be unhindered. The tourniquet 

 is finally removed, and if any post-operative hemorrhage takes place 

 it can be controlled by an elastic ligature slipped over the stump 

 immediately above the wound. It is best to dispense with pro^ 

 tective bandages and not restrain the animal from licking the wound. 

 It may be noted here that Dell attributed a case of pyemia 

 which he experienced, to an amputation undertaken to reUeve a 

 crushed tail, the animal having been run over by a street car, but 

 it is not unlikely that the disease had its origin in the lesion which 

 necessitated the operation. 



BIBLIOGBAPHX. 



Darwin — The Descent of Man. 



Dell— Journ. Comp. Med. & Vet. Archlyes 17, 1866, p. 100. 



