40 PEINCIPLES OP VETEEINAET SUEGEET 



neath the field of operation a clean rubber sheet is placed. 

 This rubber sheet is of great practical interest, as it protects: 

 the field of operation against the invasion of bacteria from 

 beneath, enabling the surgeon to operate almost anywhere. 

 The hospital and college go one step further toward asepsis 

 by providing operating tables— practically, useless; theoreti-, 

 cally, ideal. The latest is Dollar's operating table. This 

 mechanical contrivance upsets the mental equilibrium of any 

 but the most decrepit old horse. The vast majority of horses J 

 cannot be gotten near it; those which you get into it almost 

 invariably raise all sorts of disturbances before they are 

 secured with the foot- chain, belly-strap, etc. In city practice 

 it may be allowed to exist, but the country practitioner's 

 experience with it on farmers' horses, which are but half 

 broken anyway, would make quite a collection of broken 

 bones of the head, fore and hind legs, to say nothing of the 

 crushed fingers coming from the surgeon's anatomy. 



After an operation, to prevent secondary infection the 

 animal is prevented from lying down by tying him short; 

 (Castration wounds in city practice ; equally valuable in 

 country practice, unless a dust and mud free pasture is given 

 as a run.) 



2. Field of operation. — Shave the parts; scrub witt 

 Park & Davis's mercury soap; rinse the parts with bichloride 

 of mercury solution- 1 : 500, and cover with a towel soaked in 

 a bichloride of mercury solution 1 : 500 till the operation can 

 be started. 



3. Hands of the operator. — Remove dirt mechanically 

 with brush, soap (P. & D. mercury soap) and warm wateri 

 Pay cose attention to the finger nails. After scrubbing hotk 

 hands and arms with soap and water for some minutes, scrub 

 them once more in a 1 : 1000 bichloride of mercury solution: 



