EXCISION OF THE BITTEN BART. .390 
which the tooth could have come in contact must be removed. 
This is often exceedingly difficult, on account of the situation and 
direction of the wound. The knife must not enter the wound, or it 
will be likely to be itself empoisoned, and then the mischief and 
the danger will be increased instead of removed. Dr. Measey 
was convinced of the possibility of this when he advised that 
should the knife, bv chance, enter the wound that had been 
made by the dog’s tooth, the operation should be recommenced 
with a clean knife, otherwise the sound parts may become inocu¬ 
lated.” 
If the incision is made freely and properly round the wound, 
and does not penetrate into it, yet the blood will follow the knife, 
and a portion of it will enter into the wound inflicted by the 
dog, and will come in contact with the virus, and will probably 
be contaminated, and w'ill then overflow the original w'ound, and 
will be received into the new incision, and will carry with it the 
seeds of disease and death ; therefore it is that scarcely a year 
passes without some lamentable instances of the failure of exci¬ 
sion. It occurs in the practice of the most eminent surgeons, 
and seems scarcely or not at all to impeach the skill of the 
operator. 
Aware of this, there are very few human practitioners who do 
not use the caustic after the knife. Every portion of the new 
wound is submitted to its influence. Thev do not consider the 
patient to be safe without this second operation. Has the ques¬ 
tion never occurred to them, that, if the caustic is necessary to 
give security to the operation by excision, the knife might have 
been spared, and the caustic alone used ? 
The veterinary surgeon, when operating upon the horse, or 
cattle, or the dog, frequently has recourse to the actual cautery. 
I could excuse this practice, although 1 would not adopt it in 
superficial w'ounds ; but I do not know the instrument that could 
be safely used in deeper ones. If it were sufficiently small to 
adapt itself to the tortuous course of many wounds, it w'ould be 
cooled and inert before it could have destroyed the lower portions 
of them. If it were of sufficient substance long to retain the 
heat, it would make a large and fearful chasm, and probably in¬ 
terfere with tlie future usefulness of the animal. 
The result of the cases in which the cautery has been used 
proves that, in too many instances, it is an inefficient application. 
I have referred to the appearance of a rabid dog in Park Lane a 
few years ago. He bit several horses before he could bo de¬ 
stroyed. A caustic was applied to one of them, and the hot iron 
to the others. The first was saved. Almost the whole of the 
others were lost. A similar case occurred during the last spring. 
