SURGERY IN FISTULA-PIPE OR REED ? 
183 
2. The pipe can be dissected out and escherotics applied 
to terminal pipes. 
3. A more dependent opening can be secured. 
4. The wound, a portion of which or all (if a dependent 
opening is secured) can be healed by first intention. 
5. The usual mode of healing is by granulation. 
6. Antiseptic treatment in all cases is of primary impor¬ 
tance and absolutely necessary to a successful termination. 
7. Local anaesthesia is indicative of a humane, intelligent 
and progressive veterinarian. 
8. By removal of the cause the effects cease. 
In treating sinuses the objects are to promote granulating 
action on their surfaces, and to press their sides together. 
They are not healed by filling up, any more than the original 
cavity of the abscess, but contract until they become obliter¬ 
ated or close more directly by union of their opposite sides. 
The presence of pus being indicated by the swelling, heat, 
pain, etc., by manipulating you determine by compressing the 
skin and fluctuation with a small searcher or trocar and ca- 
nula ; after applying a twitch to the nose, you puncture the 
skin and ascertain the contents of the abscess, or a sinus may 
be present and matter exuding therefrom, the hair in its im¬ 
mediate vicinity being matted and wet. 
Before operating it is necessary to thoroughly wash with 
tepid water and soap and a scrubbing brush, used carefully, all 
around the proposed wound ; after drying, clip away the hair ; 
this keeps the hair from becoming matted with the accumu¬ 
lation of debris of diseased tissue, etc. The kind of wound 
necessitates at all times that the animal should be under com¬ 
plete control and in a position most suitable for operating. 
All instruments, needles, sutures and whatever the operator 
deems essential to a successful termination, must be aseptic; 
antiseptic sponges, dressings and washes must be convenient 
and ready to handle. 
Anesthetics of whatever kind, whether general or local, are 
indicated in major or minor surgery. It is-so in the human 
practice; why otherwise in ours ? Cocaine in a 4 or 6 per 
cent, solution will be found sufficient, and if injected hypo- 
