562 
WOUNDS AND BRUISES OF THE METACARPUS. 
Stolz employed an ointment, now named after him, composed of two 
parts of resin and one of wax, which is smeared on linen, and used as a 
first dressing, over which a splint is applied. Horses must generally be 
slung. Pujos saw transverse fracture of the cannon bone, just above the 
fetlock, in the horse, which united after applying a plaster bandage. 
Eight days (?) after the accident the animal began to place weight on 
the limb. Forty-five days later, when the bandage was removed, the 
limb could be moved as usual. In sixty-six days the horse was again 
put to work. 
II.—WOUNDS AND BRUISES OF THE METACARPUS. 
On account of the skin being so tightly stretched and firmly united 
to the underlying structures, wounds in this region, especially in large 
animals, often take an unfavourable course. It sometimes happens that 
bones, tendons, and tendon sheaths are all simultaneously injured, and 
such cases demand the most careful antiseptic treatment. The hair 
should be removed, along with any foreign bodies or loose shreds of 
connective tissue, and the wound and its neighbourhood carefully washed 
with a disinfectant. If possible the parts should be immersed in a bath 
of sublimate, carbolic or creolin solution, and the wound irrigated with a 
powerful stream of sublimate until its edges are thoroughly saturated 
with the solution. Gaping wounds must be sutured with aseptic 
material, and a dressing applied over all. To complete the disinfection 
it is well for some time to moisten the dressing two or three times daily 
with sublimate solution. 
Immediately the dressing becomes w 7 et through with discharges or 
blood it should be changed, under antiseptic precautions. Thus treated 
the wound may unite by primary intention, even when tendons, tendon 
sheaths, or bones are damaged, as shown b} 7 reported cases. Similar 
precautions are required in all injuries complicated with much loss of 
skin, or where large flaps are threatened with necrosis. In such wounds, 
cicatrisation is difficult, for in consequence of its firm structure and 
fixed position the skin cannot stretch; and even when the defect is filled 
up, the epidermis is not replaced. Exuberant granulations, liable to 
result after operation or extensive necrosis of skin, must be kept back by 
the early use of astringents (iodoform conjoined with tannin, glutolite), 
or by applying a well-fitting pressure dressing, or they may be destroyed 
by suitable caustics. In all cases the skin must, as far as possible, be 
preserved, further necrosis prevented by antiseptic dressing, and the fact 
borne in mind that wounds which fail to heal by first intention always 
produce well-marked cicatrices. 
In horses, the tendons and tendon sheaths in the metacarpal and 
