288 
DEPARTMENT OF SURGERY. 
ure ; and to its inefficiency as a curative agent. The use of 
tetanus antitoxin as a prophylactic measure was discussed at the 
last meeting of the Chicago Veterinary Association. We were 
surprised to hear of the number of veterinarians that use it for 
this purpose ; and of the number of firms that demand that their 
veterinarians treat all nail-pricks and suspicious wounds with 
tetanus antitoxin. Dr. Hughes mentioned upon this occasion 
that a few weeks prior to the meeting in question, he punctured 
his hand with a piece of wire which he had removed from a 
horse’s foot; two or three days’ later the horse developed tetanus, 
and, fearing that he might also be infected, he requested his physi¬ 
cian to treat him with tetanus antitoxin, which was done as a 
prophylactic measure. The horse developed tetanus, but Dr. 
Hughes did not .—(£. Mi) 
Chloroform versus Chloral Hydrate in Surgical Ancesthesia 
of the Horse [Written for the Department of Surgery by W. 
E. A. Wyman, M. D. V., V. S., Milwaukee, Wis.]—The more 
or less perfect means of restraint of to-day apparently permit 
the surgeon the performance of most operations without employ¬ 
ing anaesthetics. Practice, nevertheless, teaches a different les¬ 
son. There is no means of restraint known to-day, starting 
with the latest introduction—Dollar’s operating table—down 
to the numerous hobbles, harnesses, etc., by which the horse 
can be held with safety to himself and surgically quiet—an im¬ 
portant feature of aseptic surgery apropos of Dollar’s operating 
table. This mechanical appliance, while a decided improve¬ 
ment over any of the other tables used by the profession, at 
least those known to the writer, exhibits the following leading 
objectionable features: First, the difficulty of getting most 
horses into it ; and, second and last, but not least, the impossi¬ 
bility of getting the balance near it. The time consumed and 
energy expended in this way is often sufficient to throw, chloro¬ 
form, operate and return the creature to its stall. That much 
for Dollar’s operating table. Asepsis and surgical quietness 
are, to say the least, desirable features. As previously stated, 
they cannot be granted with to-day’s means of restraint for our 
equine patients. Neat surgery and unexpected movements of 
the field of operation—asepsis and struggling on account of its 
dust, etc.—are incompatible. Therefore general, or at least top¬ 
ical, anaesthesia must be used to get the best possible results. 
While in a great many instances topical anaesthesia suffices— 
general anaesthesia, at least to a state of total loss of conscious¬ 
ness, is imperative in all capital operations. Of the many acci- 
