EXTRACTS FROM FOREIGN JOURNALS. 
139 
antiseptic wadding in the dressing of wounds. According to the- 
author, this mode of application possesses over the ordinary oakum 
method advantages vhich he recapitulates as follows : 
1. The pressure which can be applied with wadding is soft, 
uniform and methodical. 
2. It preserves an even temperature over the surface of the 
wound—it protects the parts much better against external injuries, 
and again (though this point is still in dispute) it protects the 
wounds against the effect of the access of surrounding microbes 
by acting as an excellent means of filtration .—Revue Veterinaire. 
STRICTURE OF THE SPHINCTER ANUS—SUBCUTANEOUS MYOT¬ 
OMY-RECOVERY. 
A young cow had been for a long time suffering with constipa¬ 
tion. It was only after violent efforts that she succeeded in 
passing a small quantity of foecal matter. The general health 
had been fair, but of late her appetite had become capricious, and 
she began to lose flesh. Every form of treatment failed to give 
her relief, though by injections and feeding her with grass she 
seemed to improve somewhat. The foeces she passed were rather 
soft, and when ejected were thrown out with some strength 
through the contracted anus. Rectal exploration was very diffi¬ 
cult and painful. The walls of the rectum had the normal thick¬ 
ness and suppleness and the mucous membrane was soft and 
smooth in its whole extent. While the exploration was made 
the arm was subjected to violent pressure from the sphincter, 
which, with the posterior extremity of the rectum, felt like a 
hard ring, regular in its whole circumference and free from ad¬ 
hesion to the skin or to the mucous membrane. It was, in fact, 
the sphincter anus and the corresponding extremity of the rectum, 
which was transformed into a regular ring, powerfully constricted. 
This diagnosis being accomplished, a subcutaneous section to the 
right and to the left of the ring was made with the curved blunt 
tenotomy knife, and without any complication, and but a slight 
haemorrhage, the animal was relieved .—Revue Veterinaire. 
