The Common Farm Operations. 185 



etc., and will impress on the stockman that no materials 

 he may apply will heal a wound, but that Nature heals, 

 and that his treatment or that of the surgeon is only in 

 the nature of assistance. Once that fact is thoroughly 

 appreciated, wounds can be scientifically and therefore 

 successfully treated. The inflammatory process has been 

 described; following that he will often find that pus 

 (matter) is present in wounds, the bacteriologist will 

 tell him that pus is the result of germs that have 

 obtained entrance to the wound, and when one remem- 

 bers that pus is made up of dead cells, destroyed by those 

 germs, the methods of wound treatment are simplified 

 and the stockman has also mastered the principles of 

 what is known as the Listerian or antiseptic treatment 

 of wounds. Lister was the father of antiseptic surgery, 

 the adoption of which has reduced the mortality result- 

 ing from wounds to very small proportions. Wounds 

 heal in various ways, depending on the severity of the 

 wound and the manner in which it was inflicted; exam- 

 ples of varieties of wounds are (a) clean cuts as made by 

 a sharp knife, these as a rule heal readily; (b) punctures 

 caused by running into a part of a blunt body, such as 

 the point of a shaft, repair of this variety is slower 

 and the injury is more serious than the first kind; (c) 

 lacerations, tears such as wounds made with a saw or 

 jagged edged instrument; repair is slow in these wounds 

 and pus is usually abundant; (d) bruises in which case 

 the skin is rarely broken. 



Manner of healing of wounds : 



1. By immediate union, the parts are brought together 

 in exact contact and unite at once; there is very little 



