156 
ON THE RE-ABSORPTION OF PUS. 
which appear to me to prove the absorption of pus in domesti¬ 
cated animals, and to call the attention of my confreres to a 
question too much neglected in veterinary medicine, and which, 
nevertheless, is highly important. What light will it not throw 
on the etiology of certain diseases, frequent and serious, if it can 
be shewn that they often proceed from the re-absorption of pus ? 
at the same time, what indications will they not unfold of the 
proper treatment of suppurating wounds? I will limit myself at 
present to the point of practice under which this question may 
be considered. 
In the facts which I am about to state, pure pus has not 
been met with in the blood; but the circumstances in which the 
animals have been found—the perfect similitude in the lesions 
and alterations observed in the dead bodies, with those which in 
the human being are regarded as the consequence of purulent re¬ 
absorptions—appear to me to leave no doubt about the matter.” 
CASE I. 
An entire draught horse, four years old, was brought to the 
hospital to be treated for fistulous withers. The fistula had ex¬ 
isted nearly three months. It commenced with a large tumour, 
which burst spontaneously, and from which a great deal of pus 
ran during fifteen days. At that time the opening from which it 
issued being almost entirely cicatrized, a fresh tumour formed, 
and enlarged and spread so much, that the owner was frightened, 
and, for the first time, consulted a veterinary surgeon. He made 
two large incisions on the right side of the swelling, in order to 
empty the abscess, and to favour the future discharge of pus. 
Some days after this operation, the horse began to cough from 
time to time, then the cough became more and more frequent — 
the horse got thin, and the pus continued to run as plentifully 
as at first from the wounds in the withers. 
The horse was now brought to the hospital.. The withers were 
enlarged from the posterior part to the commencement of the 
crest. From the anterior one of the two wounds there ran, when 
the tumour was 'pressed upon, a sero-purulent grumous fluid, ex¬ 
haling the odour of caries. The probe penetrated more than 
eipfht inches into a fistulous sinus. It was decided that the horse 
o 
should be operated on in the course of the following day; and, 
in the meantime, the wounds were w'ashed with a solution of 
chloride of lime, and the horse put on half-diet. 
2\.st. — Since last nig^ht the horse has coughed frequently, and 
the cough was dri/. He was cast and operated on. The devas¬ 
tation was frightful. Two spinous apophyses, and nearly half a 
foot of tlie posterior part of the cervical ligament, were carious. 
