PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
459 
M. Rey records the histories of fourteen cases, all operated 
upon from the 4th December, 1853, to the 29th June, 1855, 
that is to say, in eighteen months. Notwithstanding the 
large number of horses treated in the Lyons School this is a 
considerable per centage. Unfortunately, we cannot con- 
front with it numbers to prove how rare it is with us, and 
what an exception death is under such circumstances, but 
we cannot be surprised when in the last clinical report there 
are 1 10 “ saignees de precaution i” mentioned, and when we 
know how frequently the plan is resorted to in inflammatory 
disorders. I have repeatedly admired M. Rey’s dexterity as 
an operator, but I have sometimes questioned the necessity 
of the operation. If suppurative phlebitis was so frequent, 
and so fatal in its effects, and did not allow of the adoption 
of preventive and mild curative measures, then that operation 
would receive our approval which was sure and safe in its 
effects. When I first read Renault’s monograph on traumatic 
gangrene, and first saw M. Bouley tie the jugular in a horse 
above and below the seat of the incision, plugging the im- 
mense wound with tow, I formed a decided opinion against 
the laying open a thrombus and clearing out the clots, or 
interfering with the vein at all. If M. Rey’s procedure is so 
infallible, how is it there were two horses with phlebitis which 
died in the Lyons’ School, according to the clinical report, 
during the session of 1854-55? I have done M. Rey full 
justice, by giving a description of his operations, and pub- 
lishing his opinions almost in his own words, though neces- 
sarily 1 have much abridged his sentences. I do not repro- 
duce his cases, space forbids me, and necessity does not 
require it, as he relates fourteen successful instances, but 
from the descriptions of the condition of each vein extracted, 
it is clear that several were not instances of suppurative but 
of adhesive phlebitis, and did not call for surgical interference 
— even admitting, for argument sake, that where pus existed 
in the vein it was imperative that the scalpel and index 
finger should do their work. Veins have been tied, and setons 
passed through them, even by English veterinarians, but it 
is found best to exhaust all other means long before touching 
the vein ; and there are means at hand, whereby the per 
centage of deaths from the accidents that may ensue after 
bloodletting is reduced to the very minimum. 
If a human surgeon tied a vein he would be blamed for the 
proceeding, on the score that the ligature would excite phle- 
bitis, suppuration, and be the cause of death. In animals 
veins may be tied, though they should not be, as it is not 
called for except under the most extraordinary circumstances. 
