COLD ABSCESSES AND THEIR TREATMENT. 
223 
process taking place rapidly ; but in the majority of cases no 
fluctuation can be felt on the subsidence of the oedema, the 
tumor remaining firm and hard. It is in these cases that such 
good results have followed puncturing with a pointed iron, 
heated to a white heat and driven in four or five inches before 
pus can be detected. It is better to have two irons, made in 
the shape of firing irons, bent at right angles with a prong, 
one five or six inches in length, one inch in diameter at the 
base and tapering to the point; the other the same length but 
thicker. 
This is a most radical operation and the method of pro¬ 
cedure is to plunge the small iron into the hard indurated mass, 
so as to penetrate the center of the cavity ; it may have to be 
repeated three or four times in the same aperature before pus 
is reached, as I have often driven the iron in full length before 
pus would escape; then the larger iron is introduced to pro¬ 
duce a larger opening and to cauterize the bottom of the cav¬ 
ity and the thickened walls. In about six days a large slough 
takes place, leaving a healthy granulating surface, which heals 
without difficulty, an adhesive inflammation being induced 
with no hemorrhage to arrest. 
After cauterizing, the surrounding parts become greatly 
oedematous, which gradually subsides as the sloughing process 
takes place, the adjacent tissues become hardened and indur¬ 
ated, but gradually soften and regain their normal appearance 
as the cavity closes. By using basilicum and populum oint¬ 
ment in equal parts, smeared over a pledget of oakum and intro¬ 
duced in the tract, the softening of the tissues will take place 
more rapidly and at the same time act to prevent reunion ol 
the granulating walls and to secure proper adaptation to the 
bottom of the wound. The result of this procedure is simply to 
keep the margins of the walls from uniting, and cause the 
wound to fill by granulations from the bottom. The wound 
usually heals from the bottom and is entirely closed up in 
three or four weeks and the animal is able to resume his work. 
Some practitioners claim that the treatment by the actual 
cautery has met with poor success in their hands. The parts 
apparently healed but had a recurrence of the same in a few 
