698 A CASK OF A^'ENTRAL HF:RN1A IN A MARE. 
myself of the certainty of any common pressure being sustained, I 
fixed on the 29th for the operation. 
^th .—On this day she was not allowed to eat anything: pulse 
28, and not very full. 
Mr. Rolfe, of Harleston, Messrs. Walter and George Godbould, 
of Woodbridge, and my brother, Mr. R. Rush, of South Lopham, 
kindly gave their professional assistance, without which I should 
certainly have failed in the operation. I would here endeavour to 
impress on all who may attempt a similar operation, the imperious 
necessity of at least two veterinary surgeons to assist. I had four, 
and neither was for a moment idle, but busy rendering that assist¬ 
ance which none but professional men can efficiently do. Although 
a young practitioner, I make these remarks, because in reading 
your clearly described successful cases—(this letter was addressed 
to his friend, Mr. Simonds, of Twickenham)—I was not sufficiently 
impressed with the difficulty, from various causes, I should possibly 
experience. 
I evacuated the bowels with enemata three quarters of an hour 
before the operation, and the bladder by means of a catheter, and 
gave her, a quarter of an hour after this, half an ounce of crude 
opium mixed with water. 
At 3 P.M. she was cast on the opposite side to the one affected, 
with part of her bandages remaining. The head w’as secured 
to a post, and the thigh of the affected side, being brought as for¬ 
ward as was necessary for the relaxation of the muscles, was se¬ 
cured in that position by means of a side leather, and then fastened 
posteriorly by means of a rope. 
I made the incision through the skin in the same direction as the 
lesion appeared to take, and cut carefully through the obliquus exter- 
nus and obliquus internus muscles. In doing this a considerable 
superficial vein was cut through. It was immediately secured by 
ligature. An artery in the next incision was divided, and pumped its 
contents in our faces. By means of the torsion forceps, Mr. W. 
Godbould immediately conquered it, and we soon reached the lesion. 
Three interrupted sutures of the largest wire brought the edges in 
apposition, and sufficiently confined them. The mass of muscle I had 
divided was, with the skin, confined by four interrupted sutures of 
the same sized wire, and four intermediate ones of doubled thread. 
The compress was carefully fitted over the protruded ends of the 
wire, and, with the exercise of considerable patience, the largest and 
strongest bandage was placed in its proper position before the pa¬ 
tient was released. The effect of the large dose of opium was a 
powerful assistant in preventing those violent struggles which so 
much alarm the operator and those around him, and which call for 
such prompt assistance. 
