MINOR SUEGEEY. 265 



CHAPTER XIII.— MINOR SURGERY. 



T0MOUES. — In treating of the diseases of various organs 

 we have noted the occurrence of different sorts of tumours 

 in or on them. The system of the dog seems especially liable 

 to morbid growths, which not rarely assume the malignant 

 foem. Cancers seem to specially affect the genitals and 

 the mammary gland, and are most frequently scirrhous in 

 character, although epithelial cancer and encephaloid are, 

 perhaps, most frequent in the dog of all our domesticated 

 animals. It is found that over-fed, under-exercised, and 

 old dogs suffer most from cancers, and hence, in their re- 

 moval, when chloroform has to be resorted to, the greatest 

 care has to be exercised lest the heart be fatty; 

 probably the effects of local anassthesia might be more 

 frequently relied on than they usually are in canine 

 surgery. There is an increasing belief that many tumours 

 of the genitals and elsewhere in the dog are less frequently 

 malignant than is generally supposed, but as the use 

 of the microscope has extended among veterinary sur- 

 geons the frequency of morbid growths in carnivora has 

 been thoroughly established. Melanosis is very rare, 

 but Fleming has placed on record an instance of disease 

 of the skin of the leg which proved to be " Black Cancer," 

 and on post-mortem examination the liver and heart were 

 found the seat of black deposits. Sarcomatous growths 

 of the limb bones are sometimes seen in the dog ; in the 

 ' Veterinary Journal,' vol. viii, is recorded a case of osteo- 

 sarcoma of the femur of a cat.* 



* Quite recently Rivolta, the illustrious Pisa professor, has detected in the 

 masses of diffused sarcoma of a dog, a form of mucedo, which fungus he terms 

 Micorimyces cards familiaris. 



