696 PROGRESS OF VETERINARY SCIENCE AND ART. 
and the injured tissues are sloughing. The granulations are 
slightly cauterized with Egyptiacum, and camphorated spirit 
is applied to the other parts of the wound. Two or three 
of the interrupted sutures having sloughed out, have been 
replaced. 
20th. — The wound granulates rapidly, the surface is red 
and smooth, the pus laudable. The animal has torn away 
most of the dressing, owing to the pruritus which has 
existed round the wound. A cradle is put on his neck. 
August 6th. — The wound has been dressed w r ith a little 
tincture of aloes for the last eight days, and the cicatrization 
is now complete, a radical cure having been effected. — Journ. 
des Vet. dii Midi, August and September, 1855. 
In the July number of the Veterinarian for this year, my 
friend Mr. Kettle reports a case very similar to the one 
mentioned first in this-article, and in the October number is 
a very interesting one by Mr. Newton. From the complete 
absence of any British systematic treatise of veterinary surgery 
to guide the young practitioner in the treatment of special 
wounds of any kind, 1 am inclined to show up the principal 
features of the cases quoted, that the lesson they teach us 
may be impressive, and of really practical worth. 
Long ago did Travers* write in a most able manner on the 
treatment of injuries of the intestines in man and the lower 
animals, furnishing us with all the requisite knowledge ; 
but this is another of those innumerable instances in which 
veterinarians have searched not and remained uninformed. 
An important fact clearly established is that the peri- 
toneum may be severely injured without being dangerously 
inflamed. It must, however, ever be borne in mind that if any 
foreign agent, or even air, enter the cavity of the abdomen, 
the danger is much increased. In the dog, lesions of the 
peritoneum are seldom fatal ; but I have observed, in spaying 
bitches, that if even only a portion of omentum slips 
between the lips of the wound, the process of repair is inter- 
fered with, and peritonitis results. It is undoubted that in 
the ox there is much less susceptibility to peritonitis than in 
the horse ; and when, in performing a series of experiments 
on pyaemia, I had to open the abdomen to inject pus into 
and stir without ceasing, till the preparation has assumed a fine red colour 
and has acquired the consistence of an ointment. 
The red colour of this preparation is due to the reduction of the acetate 
into the protoxide of copper, by the sugar of the honey. This Egyptiacum 
is in frequent use as a slight escharotic. 
* * An Inquiry into the process of Nature in repairing Injuries of the 
Intestines,’ by Benjamin Travers; London, 1812. 
