610 LANCASHIRE VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
a half-bred horse from the superficial brachial vein with a clumsy 
bloodstick that was found at the farm-house, and from striking 
the fleam too hard it penetrated the bone underneath, and I was 
compelled to use a little force in order to pull it out, and yet no 
inflammation ensued. 
Unaccountable, however, as these facts are, the practice of bleed- 
ing with rusty fleams or lancets, or using unnecessary force with 
the bloodstick, cannot be too strongly deprecated. Although I am 
myself favorable to the use of the fleam, I have seen in some cases 
of my own bleeding, while I was pinning up the wound, some little 
swelling in the direction in which the stick had passed, although I 
had not struck my patient by any means severely. I can very 
readily believe, therefore, that too violent a blow with the bloodstick 
has been an occasional cause in producing mischief. 
I have no doubt that the mode of pinning up the wound is also 
a not unfrequent cause. The lips of the wound are not brought 
into apposition, or the hair is permitted to insinuate itself between 
the edges, preventing union taking place by what is called the first 
intention. The use of too large a pin may also irritate, by the 
violence used in inserting it, or by its pressure on the wound or 
neighbouring parts. 
It is, I think, bad practice to draw the skin too far away in the 
act of pinning up. Sometimes the pin may be left in too long a 
time, and thus may be a cause of keeping up irritation in the parts; 
yet some people have told me that they never pull them out, but 
leave them to be got rid of by the process of ulceration. I have 
repeatedly known cows and calves have them left in, and no ill con- 
sequence has ensued. In these animals, however, from the great 
thickness of their skin, and the less irritability of the system, there 
may not be so great a liability to suppuration as in the horse. In the 
horse I am inclined to believe that in some instances inflammation 
is now and then produced by taking the pin out too soon , and 
thereby destroying the adhesive process. 
In many cases the manner in which the pin is taken out may 
have some connection with the evil that follows, as there is every 
reason to believe that the wound is fatally opened again by careless- 
ness or unnecessary force. Many persons are in the habit of taking 
it out by laying hold of the lower side of the wound and drawing 
the pin out on the uppermost, and thus the orifice is almost in- 
variably reopened ; whereas if the thumb and finger were kept on 
the upper side there will be little danger of this. 
Occasionally phlebitis may be produced by the animal being too 
soon put to work, the collar and rein producing considerable irritation ; 
or by the collar stopping the current of blood, and, perhaps, forcing 
it partially through the opening, and thus displacing the union. 
I am, however, disposed to believe that the principal cause is fric- 
tion. The horse is turned out too soon, and, perhaps, teazed with 
the flies about the wound, consequently rubs himself against the 
gate, posts, or rails, or, if he is left in the stable, against the stall 
or racks, or anything, in fact, he can come in contact with, and this 
