44 
ON WOUNDS OF THE THORAX. 
patient being considerable, and having other"engagements for 
the next day, 1 requested the proprietor to write to me, and in¬ 
form me of the state of the horse early on the next morning, that 
I might judge of the necessity of seeing him. 
—I received a note, stating that about four hours after I 
left my patient, yesterday, the difficulty of breathing began to 
abate, and the horse ate a mash ; and that this morning the breath¬ 
ing is tranquil, and he will eat all that is allowed him. The dress¬ 
ings are all fast, and no air enters or escapes from the wound. 
I desired that the horse might be bled again to-morrow, and the 
other treatment continued as before. 
Juli/ Sd .—Having received a daily good report of the case, I 
did not see the horse until this morning, when the dressings 
were removed. The sutures were secure, and kept the wound 
closed, except that a thin discharge issued from the lower part 
of it; respiration was free. There was occasionally a slight cough, 
and a little mucus was discharged after the cough. The horse 
eats all that is given to him. The dressings were replaced as be¬ 
fore, two quarts of blood abstracted, and a laxative was ordered 
to be given to him two days afterwards. 
It will be needless to go on farther with the detail of this case. 
Let it suffice to say, that the same plan was continued ; the 
wound was kept accurately closed ; strict antiphlogistic diet en¬ 
joined, with occasional bleedings ; and in a month from the ac¬ 
cident, I had the satisfaction to know that my patient was quite 
sound. 
On the 17th of September I was desired to see an old hun¬ 
ter, belonging to Lord Avonmore, and that was supposed to 
be gored by a bull; but the old horse was out at grass, and no 
one saw the accident happen. 
There was a large wound on the off side, about four inches 
behind the elbow, through which I introduced my hand, in a 
slanting direction between the ribs, into the chest; and I could 
distinctly feel the lung in a collapsed state. The breathing was 
laborious, with the peculiar hissing noise before described. 
The old horse had previously been slightly broken-winded, and 
I considered that this would make somewhat against his chance 
of recovery. 
The same principles were acted upon in this case as in the 
other, and the same means adopted to carry those principles into 
effect. The wound was closed by sutures, and the air excluded 
by pledgets of tow dipped in melted adhesive plaister, and the 
dressings were secured by a broad body-roller passed over them. 
The horse was bled; had laxative medicine ; and the antiphlo¬ 
gistic tr(^tment was enforced as far as the condition of the pa¬ 
tient seemed to require. 
