MINOR STTRQEEY. 267 



The various tumours, malignant and non-malignant, 

 found in the dog, must be treated on ordinary surgical 

 principles. 



Wounds, too, will present no special difficulties to the 

 surgeon. In most dogs they result from bites, and special 

 care must be taken lest they be poisoned with rabid 

 saliva. In the absence of this complication they may be 

 poisoned by foulness of the mouth of the animal which, 

 inflicted the bite, or of the patient himself, which latter- 

 affects the wound if he be allowed to lick it. .Dogs recover 

 in a most mai'vellous manner from injuries of extraordinary 

 severity, often without any treatment, but in neglected 

 cases maggots may form and the wounds become most 

 offensive, as, especially, in the neglected stump of an am- 

 putated tail. As regards treatment it has been found 

 that stitches are especially liable to ulcerate out rapidly in 

 the dog, and it must be remembered that carbolic dressings 

 must not be applied to his wounds so freely as to those of 

 most other animals. Also he should generally be kept, 

 closely muzzled, lest, when an irritable condition of the 

 wounds comes on at a certain stage of healing, he produce 

 serious complication by lacerating the edges of the wounds 

 with his teeth. In sporting dogs gunshot wounds are not 

 unfrequent.* Jewsijensko has studied injuries of this 

 nature in the dog by cruel experimentation, and his results 

 are hardly of , sufficient importance to justify his pro- 

 ceedings. The same cannot be said in detraction of 

 the experiments of Professor Parkes, the results of which 

 may be read in the ' Quarterly Journal of Veterinary 

 Science in India,' vol. iv, No. 13, p. 97, and which throw 

 much light on an obscure point in human surgery. The 

 most severe wounds inflicted on dogs are generally the 

 result of fighting, for which purpose several of the breeds 

 are specially trained. It is a matter of no slight impor- 

 tance to be acquainted with the best and safest method of 

 separating and securing fighting dogs. We may adopt the 

 suggestions contained in Fleming's work on ' Rabies and 



* Broad has recorded an interesting case of encysted bullet in a dog's foot 

 in vol. iv of the ' Veterinary Journal/ p. 93. 



